Banking Wire articles from January 5 2009

Banking Wire archives from January 5 2009

Define Segregation of Duties.
January 5, 2009... A bank clerk extracts customers' personal and account information from a database and then sells that data. A production manager for a manufacturer improperly accesses the system to enter recurring service fees for a nonexistent vendor. Monthly...

Transparency and Regulation are Coming to the CDS Market.
January 5, 2009... The lack of transparency into the $58 billion Credit default swaps market, which today remains virtually unregulated, poses a high degree of systemic risk to the global financial system. It is characterized by the inability of regulators to:...

Death, Taxes, and Opportunity In a Down Market: In tough times, good advice can cement a lifelong relationship, something that banks hoping to build wealth management groups should keep top of mind. Just don't come across as selling yourself.
January 5, 2009... At the end of every calendar year, tax, investment and succession planning are topics of intense interest for wealth management teams and their high-net-worth clients. With a hurting economy that's sucker-punched investment portfolios and a new...

Climate Change Prompts Strategic Thinking: Governments are taking climate change seriously in Europe and the U.S., pushing the world's biggest banks to develop investing strategies linked to the technologies and regulations to come - groundwork that will benefit their corporate clients.
January 5, 2009... Even given the daily fluctuations of ongoing and systemic world financial woes, climate change remains a front-burner issue - and a new political administration means that Washington's stance toward that issue will change, too. Both...

It's All About The Image: Ending The Paper Chase Provides Big Dividends.
January 5, 2009... BASKING RIDGE, N.J. -- Financial institutions across the country continue to work toward the paperless transaction envisioned in the Check 21 law, but Affinity FCU found a way to bring it all together so that not only does the program pay for...

The Best & Worst Of The 80s: Music (Keep It), Process (Dump It).
January 5, 2009... AUSTIN, Texas -- Imagine a lending program so decentralized and "disjointed" that a member could walk into one CU facility and be denied, then simply go to another and be approved. That was the problem Amplify FCU sought to fix, and in the...

Better Branch Performance Tool Aids Granite State CU In Improving Results.
January 5, 2009... MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Despite monthly meetings and chalkboard talks, Granite State CU staff still weren't all using the same playbook, so the credit union decided it needed to create a better scoreboard to make sure all the players could quickly...

Increasing Website Usage By Members, Staff As Easy As Playing A Game At AFCU.
January 5, 2009... FAIRFAX, Va. -- A treasure hunt launched by Apple Federal Credit Union here has led to a pot of "green." In this case, the credit union boosted employee knowledge and member usage of its web-based services with the implementation of the CU...

Quick Responders Get Slow Response: How Police And Fire FCU Responded To The Call.
January 5, 2009... PHILADELPHIA -- Though members of Police and Fire Federal Credit Union have long been able to check balances, pay bills, apply for loans and basically conduct all of their banking business online, they and prospective members were still saddled...

The Business of New Business: Biz Accounts Bring $1M A Month In Deposits.
January 5, 2009... CAPITOLA, Calif. -- How did Bay FCU grow deposits by $1 million a month for 10 months? Simple: they gave their members what they wanted. And what they wanted was business banking options. In November 2007, Bay FCU introduced several new...