NEW YORK — More than 1,400 attendees – the largest Finovate attendance ever – swarmed into the Hilton MidtownTuesday to hear seven-minute presentations from 70 financialtechnology innovators over two days.

Thirty-five were up on day one. Among the most compelling,judging by audience buzz, were fresh ideas about voice biometricsfor member authentication, a how-to of bringing transparency to themurky debt collection market and an encompassing rewards programfrom MasterCard.

For credit unions, the day's most compelling offering was MX, acompany better known as MoneyDesktop. At Finovate declared its newname, as well as debuting a new offering it claimed would mobilizepersonal financial management tools across multiple platforms (suchas Apple's iOS, Google's Android and Amazon's Fire) in a way thatwill give a user a coherent, seamless display as he or shenavigates from platform to platform.

The tools, now rolling out, were developed in association withtwo credit unions: the $6.2 billion AmericaFirst in Riverdale, Utah, and the $12.5 billion BECUin Tukwila, Wash.

An MX innovation called WideNet, offered as an opt in toparticipating institutions, will allow non-members to download anduse a version of the MX app. Built in will be much of thefunctionality of the full featured app, but the idea, MX said inits demo, is that it will serve as a promotion for the sponsoringfinancial institution and may also encourage users to open newaccounts.

The real takeaway from the MX presentation was that PFM, whichmany had believed would be difficult to mobilize due to reducedscreen real estate, can be brought to life on a small screen withthe right, gaming influenced design.

Also winning interest from at least some credit unions in theaudience were voice biometrics used to authenticate members in realtime, with no effort, according to Paramus, N.J.-based NICE Systemsin its demo.

The idea is simple. As members call into call centers on routinematters their voices, at many institutions, are routinely recorded.Those recordings, suggested NICE, can be harnessed on subsequent calls to authenticate thatmember, in as few as 10 seconds, and without any of the hassle ofenrolling a member in a voice biometric program.

More radical ideas came up in the presentation of Global DebtRegistry, a startup that aims to tame the Wild West that is debtcollection, where debt paper often is sold from company to companyand, along the way, clear title – ownership of the debt – issometimes lost.

Numerous government agencies are concerned about the opacitythat afflicts debt, said Global Debt Registry CEO Mark Parsells,who pointedly added that some of the unsavory collection practicespose profound reputational risks for legitimate loan originatorswho sell their written off paper into the collection market.

The idea behind Global Debt Registry is to create aclearinghouse for debt where many involved parties, from loanoriginators to debtors, can check loan status and who presentlyowns the paper with a few mouse clicks.

A last idea that won some favor was offered by MasterCard withits MasterCard Pay With Rewards program. However, MasterCardconceded that the rewards market is glutted with offerings. Therealso are many programs that allow consumers to use rewards to payfor online purchases.

What there are not, MasterCard said, are ways for consumers to,on the fly, cash in rewards to pay for purchases at retail in a waythat is opaque to the merchant. They key, MasterCard said, is thatthe merchant is still getting cash value from MasterCard.

Consumers also can use the service to pay for online purchases,MasterCard said.

The other key difference with MasterCard Pay with Rewards isthat it covers more than a selection of merchants; it can be usedthroughout the MasterCard network. The upshot, MasterCard said, is“ubiquity and scale, without modification to POS systems or cardprocesses.”