Online social savings company SmartyPig LLC will now operate under the name Social Money Systems, and it has launched a customizable social savings tool called GoalSaver that it will market to financial institutions.

The move represents a big strategic shift for the West Des Moines-based company, which has until now marketed itself directly to online customers as an alternative to bank savings accounts, with deposits held by its sole banking partner, Compass Bank, under its BBVA Compass brand.
 
Using SmartyPig online accounts, customers share their savings goals with friends and family using social media tools and can also receive contributions from their social media contacts to their accounts. Founded in 2008, SmartyPig claims its customers have achieved more than $2 billion in savings goals using the online tool.
 
“We have had a laundry list of over 100 financial institutions approach us over the past three to four years,” said Scott McCormack, CEO of SmartyPig, dba Social Money Systems. “Our bank partner, BBVA, was very open to us working with other banks, because they are also investors (in SmartyPig) and saw this as very scalable.”
 
The product is being offered to “any bank, in any country, using any currency, at a fraction of the cost and time it would take them to do it themselves,” McCormack said, noting that up to 70 percent of most banks’ customer base do not generate any revenue for the institution. The product will also be available for other industries such as insurance, prepaid and payment processing, as well as for merchants that need a layaway or wish-list solution.
 
McCormack said his company is in various stages of negotiations with about a dozen financial institutions, including three international banks. “All of them are names you would recognize,” he said, noting that he can’t disclose any names until contracts are finalized.
 
SmartyPig accounts will be maintained independently of GoalSaver, and SmartyPig deposits will continue to be held by BBVA.

GoalSaver bank customers will pay a one-time fee for the technology and will not share any portion of the earnings from the deposits, McCormack said.