Exclusive A little bird let me know that Scotiabank has just launched a podcast for the bank called The Money Clip. (As an aside, I’m wondering if, given Apple’s aggressive trademark saber rattling we should call it an “audiocast” from here on out. Wait I know, how about “Zunecast”? 🙂

Scotiabank’s Michael Seaton tells me that they’ve submitted the feed iTunes but will likely not appear there for another day or two as it apparently takes them a while to approve things. Right now it is streaming and downloadable from the page. The first series from The Money Clip is on Mutual Fund Investing, split into three segments for beginners, intermediates and advanced investors. Part one is available now. Part two goes up next week and the series continues. Michael believes this to be a first for a North American financial institution.

Here’s Michael’s overview of the service:

• This podcast represents a first in Canadian financial services, certainly it is among only a select few worldwide

• The goal is to extend the same neutral and helpful advice for Canadians as demonstrated in our newsletter, The Vault. (The Vault is an online guide to getting ahead financially, helping Canadians with insights and advice on money matters for six years via email — over 1,000,000 subscribers currently receive The Vault newsletter via email.)

• Podcasting is a big part of Scotiabank’s digital communications and marketing strategy as it will allow us to go deeper into financial matters, speaking with experts inside and outside Scotiabank

• We hope the self-select/on-demand nature will deliver our brand in a relevant and meaningful way for customers and non-customers interested in demystifying and growing their personal financial knowledge.

• Access is provided in three ways — iTunes, downloadable audio file or, via streaming audio on the site.

• A side goal of The Money Clip is to help overcome perceived technical barriers with the term “podcast”. We hope to demonstrate the power of informative audio in a highly accessible and exciting way. (Yes, we will try and make finance exciting!)

The site is still a little rough around the edges (no iTunes listing, feed called “XML” and not properly formatted, adding a www. in front of the URL breaks it, etc.) but overall kudos to Michael his team and Twist Image who help them out with it.

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Originally published at www.onedegree.ca on October 3, 2006.