InfoWorld CTO 25: Greg Framke

Greg Framke, ETrade’s CIO and executive vice president, likes being first. He was instrumental in the company’s becoming the first financial institution to offer all its customers an RSA SecurID token to supplement username-password pairs. Framke also backed Etrade’s move to become the first brokerage to offer its customers indemnity from losses caused by identity theft.

Those initiatives, says Framke, are part of a larger strategy to use technology aggressively to spur innovation — and convince customers to put more of their money in Etrade’s hands. Customers who use the RSA tokens, for instance, deposit more into their online brokerage accounts, he says. Likewise, Etrade’s Intelligent Cash Optimizer lets customers view earned interest on cash holdings while highlighting investment options that perform better. No wonder cash deposits have increased $3 billion in the past year.

Framke likes the idea of Etrade as a small, nimble David armed with better technology to do battle against the Goliaths of the financial services world such as Citibank or Charles Schwab. “That’s how Etrade has to be,” he says. “That’s how we’re going to be successful.”