Banking Wire articles from December 2008

Banking Wire archives from December 2008

(12) ARCHER TECHNOLOGIES: John Darbyshire, CEO.
December 1, 2008... There are numerous reasons why risk management is perplexing. But not least of which is that while everybody thinks it's a good idea to share information, nobody seems to want to step to the head of the line and lead. With banks looking on...

(13) ANISH BHIMANI: JPMorgan Chase & Co., Managing Director, Risk & Security Management.
December 1, 2008... There's a shift underway in the field of information security, and JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s Anish Bhimani is at the heart of it. Fading fast is paradigm of a lifelong security practitioner who sees the issue of security in black-and-white. On the...

(14) M-COM.
December 1, 2008... Arriving from its home base Down Under, M-Com is a potential up-ender with its 2008 launch into the U.S. The New Zealand-based mobile banking and payments platform vendor crashed the North American m-banking market earlier this year,...

(15) DIGITAL CHECK CORP.: CheckXpress CX30, RDC.
December 1, 2008... The world of small business remote deposit capture has been a boon for those who have jumped on the wave. According to Celent, there are nearly 15 million small businesses in the market for an RDC solution, and five million will become adopters...

(16) FRANK D'ANGELO: Metavante, Senior EVP.
December 1, 2008... Prior to Frank D'Angelo joining Metavante in 1997, the Milwaukee-based company made its name as a core-processor provider. It's been D'Angelo, the company's senior evp and president of payment solutions, who has been the driver behind Metavante...

(17) JOAN KELLY: MasterCard, Group Executive.
December 1, 2008... Making mobile phone transactions easier, reaching the un-banked and eliminating the use of cash and checks are the major challenges for capturing credit card market share, says Joan Kelly. Having a payments transaction-processing infrastructure...

Reverse Reengineering of Risk.
December 1, 2008... The writedowns and bailouts are legendary, but some industry experts argue the credit crisis didn't have to happen. Simply put, an overdependence on technology and absence of judgment fanned the flames that have burned investors and taxpayers...

At Your Service: Retained Loans Catch On: More customers are seeking out community banks that will retain their mortgages. For banks willing to service these loans, there's an ideal opportunity to deepen relationships and cross-sell products.
December 1, 2008... The issuance, re-selling and servicing of mortgages has become such a tangled mess that some consumers are beginning to seek out banks that will retain the servicing of the mortgages they originate and maintain direct relationships. "We...

(18) CITI'S SECURE AUTHORIZATION SERVICES: Gary Greenwald, Global Head, Capabilities, and Information Products, Global Transaction Services.
December 1, 2008... A powerful brake on industry's push to automate workflow and reap the significant savings possible through business process automation and elimination of paper, is the inability to verify the identify of the people approving the steps along the...

(19) VIEWPOINTE.
December 1, 2008... Consolidation and execution: those are the two stepping stones to technology dominance - at least until the next disruptive thing comes along. While Viewpointe can't be considered dominant, it's looking pretty strong these days. Locked in...

Spend To Save? Try 'Saving' To Save, Says CU In Campaign.
December 2, 2008... Debunking popular "spend-to-save" banking promotions, Carolina Postal CU has set out to show members a better way to save money: the credit union way. Through its "Brighter than a Bank" campaign, CPCU is telling its members that despite...

NOW IN THE MARKET.
December 2, 2008... Synergent Helps Protect Children WESTBROOK, Maine-Synergent Print & Creative Services reported that one of its clients, Central Maine CU in Lewiston, used it to create a campaign to keep children from becoming victims of identity theft. For...

Congress Urged to Scrap Market Value Accounting.
December 2, 2008... As part of the bailout of the mortgage markets, the bankers are lobbying Congress to halt by the end of the month requirements that financial institutions mark the value of their holdings at the fair market value. In a continuation of a...

House Beats a Dead Horse, Passes Credit Card Reforms.
December 2, 2008... The House voted to ban a variety of credit card practices, most of them targeted at low-income cardholders, but the credit union-opposed bill is sure to die from inaction in the Senate. The bill would ban so-called double cycle billing;...

Giant CUs Add members Through recent Mergers.
December 2, 2008... The nation's largest credit unions continue to grow through mergers, with NCUA reporting it approved four more mergers involving credit unions over with more than $1 billion in assets. They include an agreement by $12-billion Pentagon FCU...

18) Cece Sutton.
December 2, 2008... When the markets are in tumult as they are now, when senior executives are consumed by the credit crisis, managing angry shareholders and explaining themselves to indignant politicians and regulators, it can be easy to overlook the morale among...

19) Karen Lee Hail.
December 2, 2008... When Hurricane Gustav slammed into the Louisiana coastline on Labor Day weekend, MidSouth Bancorp was ready. Before the category two storm barreled out of the Gulf, MidSouth had to make sure its ATMs were sufficiently stocked to handle fleeing...

20) Cara Heiden.
December 2, 2008... Maybe it's something in the corn. Famed Iowan agronomist Norman Borlaug saved one billion people from starvation by developing high-yield wheat grains in the 1950s and '60s. The Van Buren twins out of Sioux City-Dear Abby and Ann Landers-helped...

(20) MEMENTO: Security 4.0.
December 2, 2008... It was old-school bank thievery brought down by new-school technology in Gainesville as the tawdry headlines splashed across the local paper: WACHOVIA EMPLOYEE CHARGED WITH STEALING. A 29-year-old vault manager at one of the Florida...

(21) MIKE DUKE: Wachovia, VP, IT innovation.
December 2, 2008... Nothing like selling cable TV door-to-door up and down the East Coast to teach you a little bit about people, and overcome any possible fear of putting yourself and your ideas on the line. Mike Duke, vp IT innovation product development at...

NCUA Grants Two Healthcare TIPs.
December 3, 2008... ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- NCUA reported it granted two more so-called TIP charters (for tradewide, industrywide or professionwide) for the healthcare services industry. The NCUA actions will allow BCM FCU, a $27 million Houston credit union, to...

Illinois Approves $100M Funds.
December 3, 2008... SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- The state commission in charge of student loans approved a $100 million deal by eight credit union to keep offering loans to students in Illinois. The Illinois Student Assistance Commission approved an offer to sell...

Employees Foil 'Bank Robber Bob'.
December 3, 2008... DENVER -- A serial robber lost his wig and cowboy hat and is suspected of suffering a head injury after two workers at Provenant FCU confronted him when he tried to rob his sixth institution since Aug. 14. From the surveillance photos, the...

Bandits Suspected In 15 Heists.
December 3, 2008... TYLER, Texas -- Two brothers are standing trial for a series of violent takeover-style armed robberies that hit as many as 15 Texas CUs and banks for as much as $250,000. Authorities are focusing on five of the robberies believed committed...

CUs Face Whole Host Of Risks Beyond Economy.
December 3, 2008... Capital reform has moved to the forefront of issues credit unions must get Congress to address, according to former NCUA Chairman Dennis Dollar. "Capital remains high, yet capital modernization is essential," he said. "Capital reform is...

As Delinquencies Continue To Rise, CUs Consider Outsourcing Collections.
December 3, 2008... As collections becomes an increasingly challenging-and bigger-part of credit unions' business, some may find they need to turn to a third-party collections firm. The challenge: making sure that third-party collections firm's approach and...

21) Susan Horton.
December 3, 2008... Susan Horton caught our attention six years ago when she turned around the struggling Wheatland Bank, rescuing it from sale and turning it into a strong regional player in Washington State. During her tenure, assets have doubled from about...

22) Donna DeMaio.
December 3, 2008... Donna DeMaio is making the right moves at the right time. With two acquisitions this year, her timing and execution appear to be flawless, which isn't surprising for an ambitious and technically savvy former CPA who spent 18 years at...

(22) CANOPY FINANCIAL: Vik Kashyap, CEO.
December 3, 2008... Canopy Financial is on a roll. Two years after introducing its Web-based financial processing service HealthDirect, 12 of the 25 top banks and healthcare plans in the U.S. use it to administer more than a million health savings and flexible...

(23) GDS LINK: Dataview 360, Risk Management.
December 3, 2008... These are times that try bank balance sheets - and test their credit scoring abilities. But adapting to new economic realities can be difficult if the scoring formulas are hard-wired into a legacy database system. To make it easier, faster...

'The Year of Risk': Experts Offer Insights On Host of Issues In Front of Credit Unions.(Conference notes)
December 4, 2008... Branch efficiencies, how bank performance compares to credit unions, the future of credit models, new risk management concerns and trends in technology integration were among the issues examined in a far-ranging discussion here by a panel of...

'Recession To Be Long In Duration, Shallow In Depth'.
December 4, 2008... Don't rely on the "scorekeepers" to announce in a timely manner when the U.S. economy officially is hit by a recession. That was the message from economist Jeff Thredgold, who told credit unions at a meeting here a recession started last...

Credit Union Leaders Offer Predictions On What's Ahead.
December 4, 2008... MADISON, Wis. -- CU leaders expect competitive pressures will only increase in the near future, but do not anticipate any changes in the regulatory structure or tax status that would have a negative effect. Those are some of the results of...

'Banks Have Learned From CUs,' Other 'Writing On The Wall' Shared.(Interview)
December 4, 2008... DALLAS -- A wide variety of views, insights and observations were offered by credit union leaders and other analysts during the 2008 ALM First Financial Advisors Financial Forum here. Among them: * Diana Dykstra, CEO of San Francisco...

Americans Share Lessons, Learn Lessons From Polish CUs.
December 4, 2008... WARSAW -- A delegation of U.S. credit union representatives has returned from Poland, where it visited extensively with that country's credit union movement, helped to lobby Polish lawmakers, and met with several high ranking government...

World Update.
December 4, 2008... PR CU Joins NY League LATHAM, N.Y.-Representatives of credit unions in Puerto Rico and New York have held the fourth meeting since 2005. The meeting included a new page in the two groups' history when Luis Lopez, president of Abraham Rosa...

23) Lori Chillingworth.
December 4, 2008... When approached by executive management about a promotion last spring, Zions Bank svp Lori Chillingworth was excited by the prospect of taking on new responsibility for business banking, fresh off a project in which she re-engineered the small...

24) Mary Tuuk.
December 4, 2008... As a professional vocalist in her spare time, Mary Tuuk knows sopranos are only part of the production. So it is in banking, where product lines and lending activity can't work in a vacuum. That's why Tuuk, the chief risk officer for the...

(24) SOUNDBITE COMMUNICATIONS: Intelligent Communications Platform, Multi-Channel Communication.
December 4, 2008... The average wireless subscriber sent 357 text messages per month in the second quarter of this year, and only made 204 cell phone calls, says Nielsen Mobile research. As text becomes the preferred method of contact for many consumers, enter...

(25) WOLTERS KLUWER: AML Virtuoso, AML Training Tool.
December 4, 2008... Colonel Mustard. In the library. With the candlestick. As Raffi Festekjian, chief executive officer of the compliance analytics business at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services, watched his children play the game of Clue one day, he had an...

CU Reaction To $700B Federal Bailout Plan Depends On A Lot Of 'Ifs,' Details.
December 5, 2008... Many in the credit union community are expressing general support for a government bailout of the troubled mortgage market, but are also expressing reservations over the vagueness of the proposed $700-billion rescue plan. During WesCorp's...

WesCorp: Government Intervention Is Needed To Fix 'Global Crisis Of Confidence'.
December 5, 2008... Congressional hearings on the proposed government bailout of the financial markets were being held at the same time WesCorp was hosting its Economic Forum here, providing its management team the opportunity to share their insights with credit...

CUJ Snapshot: How Has The Credit Crisis Directly Affected Your CU?
December 5, 2008... LAS VEGAS -- During WesCorp's CU Outlook conference here, Credit Union Journal asked: How has the credit crisis directly affected your CU? Specifically, how is your loan volume? We are a closely held field of membership, so it has had more...

Correction.(Correction notice)
December 5, 2008... Debra Schwartz last name was misspelled in the Sept. 22 edition. She is the new CEO of Mission FCU. (c) 2008 The Credit Union Journal and SourceMedia, Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.cujournal.com/ http://www.sourcemedia.com/

Bailout Plan Generates Feeding Frenzy Among Special Interests.
December 5, 2008... The huge bailout was creating a feeding frenzy among the various interest groups, all lobbying for a piece of the unprecedented program and threatening to turn the bailout package into a so-called Christmas Tree bill, one adorned with many...

CU Reaction Is Mixed To Bailout Legislation.
December 5, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Congress was poised last week to pass the massive bailout of the mortgage markets to allow the U.S. Treasury to buy up to $700 billion in distressed mortgage securities from banks and credit unions, but only after sweetening the...

25) Deloris Sims.
December 5, 2008... Deloris Sims started her banking career as a part-time teller for Firstar Bank in central Milwaukee, where she had lived since the age of five. Over 28 years, she rose up the ranks to become a vice president and a business banker, developing...

1. Nicole Arnaboldi: Vice chairman, Alternative Investments, Credit Suisse.
December 5, 2008... As a woman entering the investment banking world at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette in the mid-1980s, Nicole Arnaboldi was something of an anomaly. Twin that career starter with her transition to private equity only a few years later and you have...

ATM AND DEBIT FRAUD: New Methods to Bust Transaction-Level Fraud: Innovation in ATM- and debit-fraud detection could save millions.
December 5, 2008... A 40 percent increase in the amount of ATM and debit fraud detected could probably pay for the technology investment behind it pretty quickly, given that debit fraud in the U.S. is a $1 billion - and growing - problem, with few solutions. ...

MORTGAGES: Workout Analytics Taken to Loan Level: Banks, servicers and mortgage insurers have new choices in predictive assessment technologies to help salvage value from their distressed lending portfolios.
December 5, 2008... Loss mitigation doesn't quite seem the right term for mortgage loan portfolio problems these days. How about "women and children first"? According to RealtyTrac, foreclosures went up 12 percent in September, and were up 27 percent from a...

NCUA Backs Ads In National Media To Explain CU Deposits Are Insured.
December 8, 2008... ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The fact that deposits at most credit unions are federally insured are being featured in an advertising campaign set to appear in newspapers around the country, beginning last week with USA Today. Created and paid for...

NAFCU Rebuffs Latest Talk Of Merger With CUNA.
December 8, 2008... WASHINGTON -- NAFCU last week rebuffed any talk of plans to merge with CUNA and form one national credit union trade association. While CUNA has long favored such a merger, the recent discussion of such a combination was not initiated by...

SACU To Bring Lending Unit Back In-House.
December 8, 2008... SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio FCU (SACU) said that its subsidiary, CU Factory Built Lending L.P., will be brought in-house as a new division. CU Factory Built Lending, a SACU subsidiary since 2004, provides and services manufactured home loans for...

WORTH NOTING.
December 8, 2008... Int'l CUs Get Update On U.S. Economy MADISON, Wis.-Requests from outside the U.S. by credit unions wanting more information on how economis issues are affecting American CUs led the World Council of Credit Unions to host a webinar to...

Miracle Makers.
December 8, 2008... A hearty congratulations to the winners of BICs third annual Top 50 Bank Reps. Youve certainly had your work cut out for you these past few months. You deserve extra kudos for hanging in there with your clients and addressing their concerns...

Change Is Good.
December 8, 2008... Theres a lot going for you to check out at bankinvestmentconsultant.com this month. In addition to targeted industry news on our homepage, were launching a blog to keep you up to date with some of the quirkier happenings in our industry, useful...

4. Abigail Johnson: President, Personal & Workplace Investing, Fidelity.
December 8, 2008... With the financial world long obsessing over "will she or won't she"-succeed her 77-year-old father as CEO of $1.5 trillion Fidelity, that is-it's easy to forget Abigail Johnson's accomplishments and what she brings to the game right now. ...

5. Clare Scherrer: Partner and Managing Director, Goldman Sachs.
December 8, 2008... About the time Toyota introduced its hybrid Prius in the United States, and a good four years before "An Inconvenient Truth" debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, Goldman Sachs investment banker Clare Scherrer got an inkling that demand for...

IT Jobs Not in Jeopardy - for This Quarter.
December 8, 2008... With capital markets in tatters and investment banks disappearing, rampant consumer pessimism, and the national unemployment rate already at a five-year high, you might think that the financial sector's IT departments are in dire straits. Think...

DATA PROTECTION: M&A Surge Jeopardizes Sensitive Data: Meshing two organizations often opens up security holes. Beware the soon-to-be ex-employee.
December 8, 2008... As if maintaining data security isn't tricky enough, now comes a wave of mergers that makes protecting data all the more difficult. It's hard to imagine a more likely time for security holes to open up than when two banks, rife with legacy...

Credit Union CFOs Talk Risk Management.
December 9, 2008... LANSING, Mich. -- To manage risk in an economy that's turned even tougher, credit union CFOs say they are further scrutinizing credit quality and lending policies, as well as seeking out ways to access and better manage liquidity. At least...

NOW ON THE MARKET.
December 9, 2008... Ellie Mae, First American Partner PLEASANTON, Calif.-Ellie Mae, a provider of software and services for the mortgage industry, has partnered with First American Title Insurance Co., a subsidiary of the First American Corp. to offer...

Former Examiner, Now Compliance Expert Warns That New Regulations Are On The Way.
December 9, 2008... NEW YORK -- The former deputy superintendent of banks for the New York State Banking Department's Consumer Services Division has a warning for CUs: strict new regulations are on the way. Edward Kramer, EVP-regulatory programs for...

What's Known Of Trade Group Merger, & Unknown By CU Staff.
December 9, 2008... Should CUNA and NAFCU merge? Would credit unions be better represented in Washington by a CUNAFCU or a NAFCUNA? Credit union veterans know the argument has been around almost from the day NAFCU was founded by a group of credit unions...

Higher Loan Limits For Reverse Mortgages.
December 9, 2008... On Nov. 6, new regulations officially raised the maximum amount that homeowners, age 62 years or older, can borrow by selling their homes back to the bank. The new law, H.R. 3221: Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, raises the...

Advisors Act To Calm Clients.
December 9, 2008... Advisor confidence in the economy and stock market sank last month for the second consecutive month, according to Rydex AdvisorBenchmarking, a Rockville, Md., unit of Rydex Investments. The Advisor Confidence Index fell 14% from a month...

6. Maliz Beams: EVP, Individual & Institutional, Client Services, TIAA-CREF.
December 9, 2008... Few companies would seem more perfectly positioned to benefit from the 78 million wave of Baby Boomers retiring in the coming decades than TIAA-CREF, which, since established by Andrew Carnegie in 1918 as the Teachers Insurance and Annuity...

7. Anne Stausboll: Interim Chief Investment Officer, CalPERS.
December 9, 2008... The Terminator is not the only larger-than-life force striding the streets of Sacramento. The golden state capital's also home to the mighty California state employees' pension fund-CalPERS-and the hand that guides it belongs to Anne Stausboll....

IT SPENDING: Booming Business In Gloomy Times: Many suffer, but those in risk management, CRM, and integration post record quarters.
December 9, 2008... The biggest financial technology players - Fiserv, TSYS, Metavante, NCR and Diebold - are certainly feeling the industry's pain, at least when it comes to their stock prices. But the news for IT vendors is not universally bad. Many of those...

ATMs: Taking on Western Union: Cardless ATM transactions could open remittance market to all banks.
December 9, 2008... There's little argument that banks are failing miserably at making customers of the more than 28 million Americans classified as unbanked. This failure means banks lose not only potential deposits, they also lose the transaction revenue these...

CALENDAR.(Conference news)(Calendar)
December 10, 2008... OCTOBER Oct. 7-9 CU Association of Oregon Annual Meeting, Doubletree Lloyd Center Hotel, Portland, Ore. For info: www.cuao.org October 9-11 Kentucky Credit Union League 74th Annual Meeting and Convention, Galt House East...

Are Any CUs Now 'Too Big To Fail?'.
December 10, 2008... Are any credit unions too big to fail? The answer is paradoxically both "Yes" and "No." The question itself has become freshly relevant in the context of the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve intervention with investment bank Bear Stearns...

Why The Fed Will Not Raise Rates.
December 10, 2008... While expectations of an imminent Fed rate hike have dissipated over the last month, widespread speculation remains that the FOMC will raise rates this year, with futures markets pricing in nearly a 50% chance of a 25 basis point (bp) hike by...

Congress Oks Measure to Expand CLF's Borrowings.
December 10, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Congress approved a stopgap funding bill for the federal government which includes new borrowing authority for the Central Liquidity Facility, the emergency loan fund operated by NCUA. The emergency measure comes after a plea...

Don't Miss the Roth IRA Boat.
December 10, 2008... Theres little doubt that the next administration will have to raise taxes to cover mounting federal deficits. This is bad news for your clients. Its also the reason why you should raise the topic of Roth IRAs with them now, says Brett Ellen, an...

How VAs Could Overcome Their Bad Rap.
December 10, 2008... Its a sorry tale: Around half of retirees age 55 to 75 with $100,000 or more in assets dont have a financial advisor, havent planned for expenses in retirement and dont have a strategy to create sustainable retirement income, said Matthew...

8. Wei Sun: Christianson, CEO, Morgan Stanley China.
December 10, 2008... Last fall Wei Sun Christianson, Morgan Stanley's point executive in Beijing, was named to the firm's management committee. Two months later, Morgan sold a $5 billion stake in itself to China's state-owned China Investment Corp. All investment...

9. Joyce Phillips: President & COO, American Life insurance Company.
December 10, 2008... In college, Joyce Phillips was a fine arts major and aspired to become an architect. Instead she earned a masters degree in business administration and went into banking. It may come as a surprise, then, to learn that Phillips believes her...

ID Fraud Resolution? Yes. But Banks Need To Prevent It.
December 10, 2008... CIOs only have to hear it once to know they have more than potential bad press on their hands: If one out of every five victims of identity fraud leaves his or her bank after the incident, the bank has customer attrition problems as well-and...

IT SPENDING OUTLOOK: IT Spend Will Be Slow and Spotty in 'O9: Bright spots include treasury services, deposit gathering, delivery channels and risk management. But forget about consumer finance.
December 10, 2008... It would not seem to bode well for IT spending in 2009 that State Street, one of the biggest purchasers with a $1.3 billion budget, announced last month it will "materially" limit the budget through cost cuts. But, as is so often the case,...

What New Congress, Administration Will Mean.
December 11, 2008... WASHINGTON -- While credit unions lost some friends and added some new ones in last week's elections, the major impact of the widening of Democratic majorities in the House and Senate is expected to be an increasing focus on major consumer...

CU Cash, Volunteers Help Supporters, But Not All Win.
December 11, 2008... WILKES BARRE, Penn. -- Dozens of credit union volunteers fanned out days before last week's elections across Pennsylvania's 11th House district to knock on the doors of voters, many of whom had received mailings in the previous days touting...

Calculating Strategy: CU Is Seeking A Bonus From Its Bonus.
December 11, 2008... DEARBORN, Mich. -- Plenty of credit unions offer year-end dividends. But DFCU Financial Credit Union has gone one step further and is showing non-members the type of bonus dividend they could earn by joining the credit union. The...

Loans To The 8th Degree: Unique Loan Partnership In New Orleans.
December 11, 2008... NEW ORLEANS -- Three years after the storms' passage, the devastating effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita are still being felt in Louisiana-and in some cases becoming even more magnified, thanks to the economic slowdown and another battering...