“The consumer always has a phone ad a picture ID with them. Using remote deposit capture with the phone, it is easy to identify them,” said Bruce Orcutt, a Kofax executive, in an interview.

Also winning buzz at Finovate with a remote imaging product was Allied Payment Network which, said CEO Ralph Marcuccilli in an interview, allows consumers to use their smartphones to point, shoot and pay bills.

He said that at least one large credit union will go live with this Picture Pay product imminently. The idea: bill payment on mobile phones has stalled because of the difficulty of data input on small form factor devices but using the camera is fast and easy.

At Finovate to support Allied Payment Network was Robb Gaynor, CTO at Malauzai, a mobile app partner with Catalyst, the big Texas-based corporate credit union. In an interview, Gaynor said that his customers who are using Picture Pay – presently banks – report higher than expected usage and they also are seeing very high success rates for submitted payment images.

One fact about this Finovate: no clear winner emerged in terms of eliciting wide and loud applause from a majority of attendees. Opinions often were sharply divided. For example: one credit union IT executive pointed to an exhibitor and proclaimed, “A non-starter. That will never take off.”

Moments later, a different executive – in response to a reporter's question about presenters he planned to follow up with – pointed to that very same booth and indicated he was on his way there now, “This is something we've been looking for.”

Right there was Finovate 2013: Where so many good ideas competed for attention throughout a hectic two days.