Banking Wire articles from February 2008

Banking Wire archives from February 2008

Mo. Joins CU Search Program.
February 1, 2008... ST. LOUIS -- Consumers looking to join a credit union in Missouri can now find it through Find A Credit Union, the Web-based credit union search program. The Missouri Credit Union Association (MCUA) has officially enabled the link from its...

One Well-Financed Group Seeks To Get Into CUs In 2008...
February 1, 2008... CHICAGO -- This year should see several more concrete steps toward the chartering of one of the best-capitalized credit union start-ups in years. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is in the initial stages of forming a credit union...

Commerical Real Estate Appears To Be Faring Better.
February 1, 2008... WASHINGTON -- The problems in residential mortgages are not showing up yet in commercial real estate, with the exception of slight increases expected in 2008 in real estate vacancies in some markets, according to the Commercial Real Estate...

Now In The Market.
February 1, 2008... Free Materials Are Downloaded RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.Fifteen percent of CO-OP Financial Services 2,800 credit unions have downloaded free campaignable marketing materials touting credit union access and convenience. Consisting of...

...While 1 CU Seeks To Get Out, Despite Some Challenges.
February 1, 2008... SALT LAKE CITY -- Among the decisions credit unions will be watching in 2008 is how the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) rules on Beehive Credit Unions application to move to a bank charter. In late 2007, two members of Beehive Credit...

Product Focus In The New Year.
February 1, 2008... BEAVERTON, Ore. -- Beginning this month, the Credit Union Association of Oregon (CUAO) will launch the Oregon Compliance InfoSight, a comprehensive online compliance information system. The service is free. InfoSight will be a very useful...

Studies Project Surge In Usage Of Mobile Banking.
February 1, 2008... BOSTON -- Mobile operators anticipate that 25% of subscribers will regularly use mobile banking by the end of 2009, compared to approximately 7% at the end of 2007, a new study shows. The study found expectation of strong growth for other...

Site Helps Folks Fulfill 1 New Year's Resolution.
February 1, 2008... YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The Ohio Credit Union League (OCUL) has launched a financial education initiative called MoneyAndStuff. Release follows a league-commissioned survey that found only 23% of Ohioans make any effort to encourage financial...

The Story Of The First U.S. CU.
February 1, 2008... MANCHESTER, N.H. -- At the turn of the 20th century, this city had become the textile-manufacturing center of the U.S. But its workers had no place to turn for savings or credit, a fact recognized by Monsignor Pierre Hevey of St. Marie's...

Year-End Bonuses An Annual Differentiator.
February 1, 2008... WASHINGTON -- Millions of Americans were celebrating the credit union difference last week, counting their year-end dividends and interest rebates deposited into their accounts as a result of their membership in the cooperative financial...

Loans-Or Groans?: A Look At Some of The Risks In One '08 Loan Model.
February 4, 2008... BATON ROUGE, La. -- The decline in new car sales has some credit unions turning to independent auto dealers to drive up auto loan volume, but some are cautioning over the risk associated with some dealers sporadic regulatory compliance. ...

Old Building, New Focus As Financial Center Debuts.
February 4, 2008... ST. PAUL, Minn. -- After two years of planning, St. Pauls historic Old Swedish Bank Building will once again become a financial institution. This week, the new Eastside Financial Center will open its doors there, with plans to offer a...

Nov. Data Show Delinquencies Rise To Highest Point In Decade.
February 4, 2008... MADISON, Wis. -- Loan delinquencies continued to rise for credit unions, with the average delinquency ratio moving up to 0.89% for November, the highest in almost a decade, according to CUNA. The delinquency ratio, which was 0.84% at the...

On Deadline.
February 4, 2008... Countrywides Shares Continue To Fall CALABASAS, Calif.Shares of Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation's largest mortgage lender, plunged last week after the company denied rumors that it was planning to file for bankruptcy protection....

Youth Week Focuses On Growing, Saving The Green.
February 4, 2008... MADISON, Wis. -- Add credit union youth to those becoming ecologically sensitive. Got Green? Grow It at Your Credit Union was chosen as the theme for National Credit Union Youth Week, April 20-26. Youth Week will coincide with the annual April...

Hale Resigns At Andrews, Matz Named Acting CEO.
February 4, 2008... SUITLAND, Md. -- Michael Hale, the long-time president of the $810-million Andrews FCU. No reason was given for the resignation. Former NCUA Board member Deborah Matz has been named interim CEO. Matz has served as AFCUs CFO since April 2006....

One-Third Foresaw LSU Victory In Championship.
February 4, 2008... WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- At the beginning of the 2007 college football season, the CU Journal used its online poll to allow readers to predict from which conference the national champion would come. With LSUs win, one-third of readers correctly...

Banks, Credit Unions Spar In Court Over Meaning Of 'Local'.
February 4, 2008... HARRISBURG, Penn. -- In a scenario reminiscent of the court challenges that led to passage of HR 1151 10 years ago, lawyers for the banks argued in federal court that NCUA overstepped its legal boundaries when it approved a sprawling six-county...

Does '1151' Mean Anything To You?
February 4, 2008... WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- It was 10 years ago President Clinton culminated an extraordinary effort by CUs when he signed HR 1151 into law. The Credit Union Journal wants to hear about your stories and memories of this historic event: when you...

CCUL Staffer Featured In USA Today In Debate On Female Soldiers.
February 4, 2008... RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. -- A decorated veteran of the war in Iraq who also just happens to be the marketing manager for the California CU League, had her views featured in USA Today. Melia Meichelbock wrote a letter to the editor in...

Worth Noting.
February 5, 2008... Web Seminar On Third Parties ALEXANDRIA, VaNCUA Board Member Gigi Hyland will moderate a web seminar Jan. 29 titled Key Examination Issues for 2008: Evaluation of 3rd-Party Relation-ships and Strategic Planning. The focus will be on the...

'MAP' Aims To Make Front-Line Staff Front-Line Sellers.
February 5, 2008... ST. PAUL, Minn. -- To turn front-line employees into the fuel behind their credit unions marketing engines, six credit unions turned to a new program dedicated to developing 10 such employees. The Member Advocacy Pathways program teaches...

Bomb Hoax Is Attempted Cover-Up.
February 5, 2008... AUSTIN, Texas -- Police evacuated a branch of LCRA CU after a teller called in a phony bomb threat to cover up his alleged theft. The teller, identified as Nathaniel Hamilton, initially told police he had been passed a note from an unknown...

Friendship First.
February 5, 2008... When I tell people at a social event what I write about for a living, their typical response is to ask for the next hot stock tip. My response is that if I knew that, I wouldn't be a financial journalist-I'd be sipping cocktails on a beach in...

Making the Most of Tiny Budgets.
February 5, 2008... Despite minuscule budgets, program managers at best-practice bank brokerages are still hitting all the bases when it comes to client outreach-from paying branch staff for referrals to advertising in the local media-even though those program...

A Dream Unravels With Discontent Country-Wide: In 1969, two ambitious New Yorkers founded a company on the principle that homeownership is a fundamental right of those pursing the America dream. Thirty-nine years later, Countrywide is unraveling.
February 5, 2008... Angelo Mozilo and David Loeb, self-styled ambitious New Yorkers, once had a dream of founding a company built on the principle that all Americans should have the financial ability to become homeowners. That dream became Countrywide Financial...

Employment: As Recession Threatens, Banks Shed Mortgage Jobs: Risk-and wealth-management hiring is strong.
February 5, 2008... The last time the job outlook for mortgage bankers was this dismal, George Bush had just been elected presidentthe Bush whose vice president was Dan Qualye. Most lenders turned into workout specialists in the late 80s, says John Meeks,...

Marketing: Banks Target 25 Million Spending Eco-Consumers: How best to deliver 'green' rewards points?
February 5, 2008... When both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Norwegian Nobel Committee are of one mindthat Al Gores environmental activism has a game-changing roleone knows that eco-concerns are finally mainstream. That goes for banking...

IT Spending: Tight Budgets Put IT Plans In Slow Mode: Celent: Global FI spending to outpace North America.
February 5, 2008... IT spending growth will decline 14 percent among North American institutions in 2008, tapping the brakes on numerous technology projects, according to estimates by research firm Celent. Even so, banks will find that some of their IT initiatives...

Lending: The Woe Of Best Guesses: Evaluating prospects of a small business is tough. A new data service offers some aid.
February 5, 2008... As fallout from the subprime meltdown grows bigger everyday it has brought with it a recessionary mindset, if not yet an official contraction. Given the environment, its not surprising that financial institutions are stepping up loan...

Post Card From The CU Past.
February 6, 2008... OTTUMWA, Iowa -- In September 1963, Morrell Employees Credit Union employed the Little Man Under the Umbrella as mascot for its womens bowling team. The image, done in blue on white blouses, were balanced by red underarm inserts and slacks,...

Worth Noting.
February 6, 2008... 2 White Papers Are Released MADISON, Wis.The CUNA Councils have released two new white papers focused on creating and thriving in a team environment and creating innovative new products. Thriving in a Team Environment: Leading the Finance...

Kenya's Credit Unions Hold Out For Peace, Progress As Violent Dispute Continues.
February 6, 2008... NAIROBI, Kenya -- Credit unions here are holding their collective breath as they wait to see if the disputed presidential election that sparked deadly riots can be resolved in a peaceful manner. The people are very optimistic that...

HSAs Start to Gain Ground.
February 6, 2008... While health savings accounts (HSAs) got off to a bad start due to poor product design and virtually nonexistent marketing, a new report from Celent projects growth as high as 60% this year and predicts that growth rate will be consistent for...

Where Community Banks Are Losing Out.
February 6, 2008... Community banks' brokerage performance remained stable last year, but they continue to lag the larger banks in apples-to-apples measures of success, according to Michael White-LPL Financial Institution Services Community Bank Investment...

Fresh Ink.
February 6, 2008... 1. Shreveport, LA-based banks Home Federal Bancorp and First Louisiana Bancshares are merging. Home Federal is buying the $121 million-asset bank in a $24 million cash- and-stock deal. 2. U.S.B. Holding Co., the parent of Hudson Valley,...

Jury Awards California Bank $7 Million in Subprime Loan Flap.
February 6, 2008... Sometimes, the bank wins. A Miami jury recently sided with a San Francisco federal savings bank, Gateway Bank Federal Savings Bank, the defendant in a lender-liability suit under a repurchase agreement on a portfolio of 35 subprime mortgage...

Noted and Noteworthy.
February 6, 2008... Many bankers consider biometrics a potential security option, but for one bank in India biometrics is a basic necessity for its illiterate customers to do business. Indian Banks biometric ATM uses a fingerprint-scanning technology to...

Imaging: Vying for Dominance: Image share technology gets a big boost with Fiserv/Viewpointe deal.
February 6, 2008... Fiservs decision in December to archive checks from 1,600 small and regional banks with Viewpointe gives a huge boost to the image share technology, and is the latest chapter in a struggle between the rival image technologies: image share and...

SocGen's $7.2 Billion Question: How in the World...?
February 6, 2008... The spectacular revelation of Societe Generales $7.2 billion loss at the hands of a rogue trader is a huge dose of deja vu, though its financial impact is far greater than prior incidents involving young, ambitious traders who commit such...

Fla.'s Hood To Retire After 20 Yrs.
February 7, 2008... TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Guy M. Hood, who has spent more than 20 years as the president of the Florida league, said he will retire in January 2009. Hood joined the league in 1988, and during his career was recognized for numerous accomplishments,...

CUNA Presses NCUA On Subprime; NAFCU On 18% APR Ceiling.
February 7, 2008... WASHINGTON -- CUNA has sent a letter to NCUA urging that examiners be well-versed in provisions of workout arrangements for subprime mortgage loans at credit unions and that they be given adequate training to recognize reasonable workout plans...

One Idea Goes Pretty Much As Planned, Another Does Not.
February 7, 2008... When you turn the pageno, not yetyoull find an opinion piece from David Bartoo analyzing what 2008 holds for credit unions and mergers. Mr. Bartoo writes, Mergers are rarely a result of poor financial performance and short-term trends but...

Filene Report Overlooks Role Capital Plays As A CU's First Defense Against Times Of Crisis.
February 7, 2008... As I read the article on Professor Jacksons recent Filene research paper on credit union capital in the Dec. 10 issue I couldnt help but wonder what conclusions might be different if the selected base line of 1990 had been, say 1980 when the...

Making Divorce Work: Advisors dealing with divorcees may take custody of substantial new retirement accounts, but like divorce itself, specializing in this niche is no bed of roses.
February 7, 2008... If "money in motion" just means retiring baby boomers to you, you could be missing a potentially lucrative niche: divorce financial planning. Tapping that market is complex and time consuming, but with 1.4 million divorces each year, there is a...

Pop the Bubble? Or Pump It Up?: Yes, central bankers want to ease commercial banks' pain, but is providing liquidity delaying the inevitable? If recession is medicine the economy needs, why not get it over with?
February 7, 2008... The globes central banks auctions to pump more liquidity into the worlds financial markets actually may be aggravating banks thorny economic situation and prolonging the inevitable recession, say economists. In the most coordinated effort...

Peer-to-peer Lending: The Rise of Lending Communities: P2P exchanges are growing rapidly in terms of membership and loans funded, defaults are miniscule, and now there's talk of a secondary market for these loans.
February 7, 2008... To the financial services industry, peer-to-peer lending might still seem little more than a novelty acta venue for a tiny fraction of lenders and borrowers to deal directly with each other. But for the people running these lending...

Anti-Virus: Searching Customers' PCs for Nasty Bugs: Banks using Panda Security's new scanning service can identify, and potentially bar, infected customer PCs from their Websites.
February 7, 2008... A new anti-fraud measure launched by European anti-virus giant Panda Security will give U.S. banks, e-trading firms and online-payments recipients the capability to reach out and scan end-user client PCs for malware to investigate and if...

News Makers.
February 7, 2008... ORACLE-BEA: ACT II FUSING IT TOGETHER Oracles $8.5 billion buyout of middleware specialist BEA Systems came after months of sniping between the boards over Oracles initial $6.7 billion offer. Now comes the next part of the drama: How will...

Despite 3-Year Decline In Mergers, Expect To See Consolidation Accelerate In 2008: The year ahead ...a large-scale consolidation in the industry may occur still remains a possibility.
February 8, 2008... For three consecutive years, the number of mergers receiving preliminary approval from the NCUA has declined to the lowest number of approvals in the decade with just 226 through November 2007. This trend, when coupled with the very low number...

Promoting, Preserving The CU Difference Must Be A Priority.
February 8, 2008... In our January 2008 issue of cent$, our American Airlines Federal Credit Union magazine, I took the opportunity to remind our members of some hows and whys we are different than other providers of financial services. For all business entities...

Advocacy Lessons From WOCCU: Dedicated Missionaries Needed.
February 8, 2008... Last fall I participated in the Eastern European Credit Union Congress where I was asked to speak on credit union advocacy in the United States. The U.S. is not unlike other movements in that governmental bodies determine the fate or vitality...

Where To Find A Port For Your CU During A Stormy 2008: the year ahead: Each credit union must find its own path through the troubled waters predicted for 2008.
February 8, 2008... Over the last 12 months, many credit unions asset and membership growth were flat. And at most of these credit unions there were increased charge-offs attributable to the declining economy. Even with many economists predictions of continued...

Man With a Plan: There is nothing accidental about Jason Smith's meteoric rise in the banking world.
February 8, 2008... At only age 33, Jason Smith owns the kind of business most advisors covet. A financial advisor for U.S. Bank's investment division in Bellevue, Wash., Smith works with the private bank's high-net-worth clients, managing more than $150 million...

The Neglected Asset: Planners frequently overlook clients' life insurance policies, but these assets can be sold like any other.
February 8, 2008... A financial advisor WOULDN'T forget the value of a client's IRA. But when they review a plan, they do overlook or undervalue life insurance policies. In fact, insurance policies are so neglected that 6% lapse each year, according to the...

Turning Up the Volume On 401(k) Conversation: Do banks not realize the trillions of Baby Boomer retirement dollars at stake? Or, faced with intense competition from investment firms, have they just given up?
February 8, 2008... With trillions of dollars at stake, institutions such as Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Vanguard and Edward Jones have muscled their way into the retirement market over the past decade while leaving banks in the dust. Investment firms have been so...

AD Beat: Citi's New Ads: Tapping The 'Too Cute' Factor: Citi card's new campaign features the problem-solving ability of the Citi credit card. But are the ads too cute for comfort-or do they cross the line into being "trite?".
February 8, 2008... Citi Cards knows consumers like stories. So the giant card company collected a bunch of feel-gooders, added the appropriate artwork or video components, and sent them off to become another chapter in its Advertising Legend. Its a creative...

Top Tech Deals.
February 8, 2008... Number One BEA Systems agreed to Oracles $8.5 billion acquisition offer, months after the San Jose, CA middleware software firm balked at Oracles original offer of $6.7 billion. The deal will add new feature sets to Oracles Fusion suite,...

Cybercrime: Red Carpet Treatment In Trendy Tribeca: A movie documentary funded by Fortify debuted last month; its aim, to convey the grim reality of cybercrime and be more compelling than PowerPoint slides.
February 8, 2008... Its not often that bank CIOs and CISOs get invited to walk the red carpet at a film premiere, but it was a full house at the Tribeca Grand Hotels screening room at the end of January when Fortify Software held the New York premiere of its...

Research: How To Make This The Year You Turn Research Into Action.
February 11, 2008... A wise man once said that someone who does not act on an idea is no better off than someone who does not have an idea. The same is true for organizations. Learning new things from research is a step in the right direction, but acting on that...

Schedule Your Success: Use this simple tool to create predictable and consistent production opportunities.
February 11, 2008... Jim's call was familiar: "I had just come off a great month, only to realize I didn't have anything going forward," he said. "To add insult to this injury, my boss barely acknowledged that I was No. 1 in our office. He said, 'Hey Jim, good...

The Yellow Brick Road.
February 11, 2008... BIC: What are the new opportunities in your territory? Kay: We have a lot of people moving in. Most folks need guidance about building retirement portfolios and saving for their children's education. McCauley: Paola is becoming a...

Risk Without Reward.
February 11, 2008... The meltdown of 2007 exposed the industrys blind spots for risk, particularly as it ricocheted between the disparate and competing interests of lenders, servicers, traders and investors. The result was that many firms took on risk that far...

Small Banks Get Sassy With SaaS IT Delivery: While many bankers may assume SaaS is really the same as older ASP services, industry experts argue there are big advantages to SaaS, specifically around cutting compliance and IT costs.
February 11, 2008... SaaS: Its the acronym that stands for Software as a Service, and its on the lips of community bankers everywhere who want to outsource their IT demands. Consider it a revamped version of the older application-service-provider, or ASP, model....

Techies.
February 11, 2008... Acxiom Corp. named John Meyer CEO. Meyer is an EDS and Alcatel-Lucent veteran * Fiserv appointed Denis OLeary, once CIO at JPMorgan Chase, to its board, and also announced Richard K. Jones will join as evp and CIO * Janey Place joined The Santa...

Online Security: "Best-in-Class" Firms Show Value of Security: An Aberdeen survey of various companies involved in online consumer transactions found that security leaders more readily achieved strategic business goals.
February 11, 2008... Its no secret that online customers want to feel secure but dont want safeguards that impede their online experience. As challenging as this demand is, the best-in-class companies are by and large delivering, though a report from Aberdeen Group...

Actors Federal Teams With Rite Check Check-Cashing On PayNet Deposit Network.
February 12, 2008... NEW YORK -- It shouldnt come as a surprise to anyone that Actors Federal Credit Union here has quite a varied membership. Struggling and working actors give it their all on Broadway and off, while staying alive financially working in...

Congress Has Its Eye On New Credit Card Reforms.
February 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- A senior member of the House Financial Services Committee is proposing an array of credit card reforms that would ban certain practices and add new disclosures on billing, balances and payments. The proposal is being...

CUNA Raises $2 million To Build Campaign War chest.
February 12, 2008... WASHINGTON -- CUNA said its political action committee raised almost $2 million last year, enabling it to set aside a little more than $700,000 for the critical second year of the two-year election cyclea new high. The $2 million figure...

Lawyer Converting CUs to Banks to Lead CU Insurer.
February 12, 2008... WESTBOROUGH, Mass. -- Michael Hanson, a former state banking commissioner currently working to convert three credit unions to mutual savings banks, was named as new head of the Massachusetts CU Share Insurance Corp., the nations first provider...

Decoupled Relationships: The Evolution of Debit: Since Capital One unveiled its decoupled debit card last year, the industry has been scrambling to cope with this disruptive technology. Now banks need to focus on improving loyalty programs.
February 12, 2008... The days of decoupled debit cards are upon us. And while it may not be a particularly welcome innovation from banks point of view, since it reduces their transaction fees, customers will certainly benefit. One of the outcomes will be to drive...

Desperately Seeking Sticky Relationships: Small businesses need many of the same payment services banks offer the big boys. And banks that help small businesses stay afloat are those institutions that flourish themselves.
February 12, 2008... Small-business payment needs is an area where many banks arent delivering. Missing in action, by and large, on banks small-business Websites are charts for payables/receivables, spending reports, tax-paying and foreign-currency services and...

Waiting for the Other Shoe To Drop? Not Really.: The corporate-loan market isn't tanking yet, but the easy money from many big lenders is a thing of the past. For the well-positioned mid-tier bank, it may create a chance to grab market share.
February 12, 2008... Well soon see how contagious the mortgage flu is for other banking business lines, particularly corporate lending. But right now the patient is looking a little pale. True, the corporate market fared better than the mortgage market in...

Taking 'Off the Shelf' Out of the Picture: The need to merge separate functions and new portals of information were behind JPMorgan's adoption of an inherited, in-house CRM solution from Bank One.
February 12, 2008... After Bank One merged with JPMorgan Chase, technology experts in its investment banking division decided to stop using Siebel CRM and move to an in-house system. Ken Janssens, now an emerging markets business technologist for Europe, the Middle...

Network Security: Breaking Down the Firewall-on Purpose: Standard Chartered Bank has a radical idea: a perimeter fence hurts business operations and can't be secured anyway, so don't bother. Security must occur at the packet level.
February 12, 2008... John Meakin just might be the face of the future for banking network security. If thats so, dont look to the industrious software cocoons of Silicon Valley and New York for answers. Look to a bustling port southeast of Beijing. Its here...

Relationship Pricing: Customize Fees And People Feel Special: National City has adopted an SOA-enabled, silo-busting pricing strategy based on a customer's total business with the bank to deepen the relationship. Guess what? It works.
February 12, 2008... Bank fees have long been a one-size-fits all jacket, but some institutions now offer a custom-tailored experience to differentiate themselves and grab wallet share. Weve been moving away from a product and line-of-business focused culture...

NCUA Preempts Repo Notice Law.
February 13, 2008... ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- NCUA said its rules and regulations preempt the provisions of a California law requiring a notice of intent to dispose of a repossessed vehicle that is being challenged in state court. In a new legal opinion, NCUA said...

Biz Kid$ Show Airs Nationwide.
February 13, 2008... FEDERAL WAY, Wash. -- The credit union-sponsored Biz Kids$ TV series got a national audience in its initial airing yesterday, with 279 Public Broadcasting Stations in 43 states showing the new program teaching kids about business. That...

Jackson Ends 31-Year CU Tenure.
February 13, 2008... BEAUMONT, Texas -- Education First CU promoted James Lackey, its EVP, to be its new CEO. Lackey will succeed Ron Jackson, who retired New Years Day after 31 years with the credit union, the last 27 as CEO. During his tenure, Jackson, 62, grew...

Suspect Charged with ID Theft.
February 13, 2008... ELMONT, N.Y. -- A local man was charged with using stolen identities and personal information of several individuals to obtain consumer loans of $86,000 from Bethpage FCU, Nassau Financial CU and Nassau Educators FCU. Marcel Bristol, 54,...

New Tools Empower Today's Time-Strapped Advisors: Wealth-management products are evolving into "lighter" tools that keep things simple and help wealth advisors do their jobs better than ever. Three in particular are gaining traction.
February 13, 2008... The world of a wealth-management advisor is not an easy one, given the seem- ingly endless amount of information to consider, the need to constantly evaluate new financial products, and a tax environment always in flux, but there is hope. Over...

Recession: Just Say It Already!: Politicians are loathe to utter the "R" word, but it might be just what the country needs to hear. If recessions are medicine, then better to gulp it down now. The alternative is many more months of unhealthy living.
February 13, 2008... November 29, 2007: The U.S. economy remains broadly healthythe unemployment rate is low, core inflation is contained, and strong foreign growth is boosting exports. Henry M. Paulson, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury January 7, 2008: We...

Responding to the Demands Of Mobile-Banking Consumers.
February 13, 2008... Given the rapid growth of the mobile-banking market, the time is right for competitive institutions to deploy enterprise cross-selling options. There is no doubt that mobile devices will change the way banks of all sizes do business and...

Open Road.(Company overview)
February 13, 2008... The rise of consumer-driven healthcare is giving banks plenty of opportunity to accumulate assets and fee income, and otherwise insert themselves into the revenue cycle between insurance companies, third-party administrators, employers,...