Banking Wire articles from May 2004

Banking Wire archives from May 2004

Charlotte Metro Offers Members Money HQ.
May 3, 2004... Charlotte Metro Credit Union has added Money HQ to its online personal financial management offerings. Money HQ, provided through Online Resources, "transforms a consumer's standard online bill pay service into a primary financial information...

Vermont State ECU To Install OSI's TCCUS.
May 3, 2004... Vermont State Employees CU has chosen Open Solutions, Inc., to install its relational enterprise data processing suite, The Complete Credit Union Solution (TCCUS), to handle all transactional and integration strategies for the $360-million...

A Time of the Signs: Digital Signatures, Including At The Drive-Thru, Are Saving ABNB Federal A Lot of Time.
May 3, 2004... No more trips to this credit union's portable storage unit to search through piles of archived transaction receipts. This summer, ABNB Federal Credit Union will finish installing nearly 100 electronic signature pads at teller stations and...

Firm Says Product Can Reduce 'Phishing' Expeditions.
May 3, 2004... Digital Envoy, a provider of IP Intelligence solutions, has released a web-based solution it says prevents e-mail fraud and associated "phishing" attacks. The solution is part of its new "Inspector" suite of products aimed at online fraud....

Technology News.
May 3, 2004... re:Member, BSI In Alliance ST. CLOUD, Minn.-re:Member Data Services (RDS) and Bankers Systems, Inc. have formed a referral-based alliance that will result in a custom interface between the RDS cuStar core data processing software and...

Nuts Over NAFTA by November. Newsflash?: A decade after Ross Perot brought the great sucking sound into the American lexicon, the deal metrics are still a matter of debate. Sluggish job markets make trade treaties tempting territory to score political points.
May 3, 2004... As far as political hot potatoes go, it's hard to trump job losses. And with the evaporation of more than two million jobs since President George W. Bush took office, despite an economic recovery in its 29th month, it should come as no shock...

Basel II and Economic Capital.
May 3, 2004... Capital matters to most corporations in free markets, but there are differences. Companies in non-financial industries need equity capital mainly to support funding to buy property and to build or acquire production facilities and equipment to...

Liberty Introduces New Anti-ID Theft Solution.
May 3, 2004... Liberty Enterprises is rolling out a product designed to fight identity theft. The new Liberty Identity Theft Service-powered by Identity Theft 911, a provider of identity theft crisis resolution, education and defense services- is a...

OSI Announces New Channel Management Center.
May 3, 2004... Open Solutions Inc., a provider of integrated enabling data processing technologies, has announced the general availability of the Channel Management Center (CMC), a suite of applications and services designed to facilitate the building and...

Alaska USA Installs Financial Fusion For Members.
May 3, 2004... Alaska USA FCU here has partnered with Viecore to implement the Financial Fusion Consumer Banking Solution and Financial Fusion Corporate Banking Solution. As part of the deal, Viecore will migrate Alaska USA from its current system and...

Scandals Lowering BofA's Higher Standards? Nah.: For corporate America, it's a case study in governance and agility. It is less about ethics than about safeguarding Bank of America's reputation.
May 4, 2004... Ken Lewis is a decisive man. I've read his internal memos; suffice it to say he doesn't mince his words. So the question is, what does Lewis do to preserve Bank of America's image-anchored by a "Higher Standards" tagline-while simultaneously...

Philanthropy: Pumping Dollars into the Education Revolution: Finance firms help DonorsChoose.org take flight.
May 4, 2004... At 11 a.m. on school days, first graders in Cynthia Rosato's English-as-a-second-language class at PS 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, earnestly sound out words from books they were deprived of just months ago. "I'm at 'Level H' reading,"...

Pay Packages: Stock Options Come Under the Microscope: How efficient is the market? Players will find out.
May 4, 2004... With proxy season in full swing, investors are learning that CEOs across the board cashed in billions of dollars of stock options last year while valuations were high. It may be the last big options payday for a long time as market sources say...

Dollar's Days At NCUA: Popular Chairman Leaves Agency Confident In His Legacy.
May 4, 2004... You won't catch Dennis Dollar anguishing over unfinished business as he packs up his stuff to leave NCUA this week. That's because the 51-year-old, soon-to-be ex-NCUA Chairman is convinced he has completed what he set out to do when he...

True Cost Of ACH Outage Unknown.
May 4, 2004... Corporate credit unions affected by the shutdown of U.S. Central's ACH processing capabilities are now awaiting the mailing of month-end statements to members of natural-person CUs to determine the true cost of reimbursing people for costs...

Not In My Backyard: Zoning Restrictions Crack Down On Financial Institutions.
May 4, 2004... Cities and towns typically fall over themselves seeking to attract new businesses. But some are now taking down the welcome sign when it comes to branches of financial institutions. The trend has been most pronounced in the suburbs of...

Web Fees: Firm Takes Swipe At e-Tolls Again: ORCC has 50 takers. But will it matter?
May 4, 2004... The debate over whether Web-enabled financial services can draw fee income from consumers is getting an added jolt as a new pay product from Online Resources hits the market with a group of more than 50 early adopters including First Command...

Private Banking: Wells Streamlines, Updates PCS Unit: New system aids in spiking loan revenues.
May 4, 2004... When Wells Fargo decided to automate its private client services unit several years ago, it faced a problem. After a long acquisition spree, it had a good number of disparate systems with varying degrees of sophistication. Although Wells...

Business Continuity: Disaster Recovery Takes High Priority: Do preventative measures go overboard?
May 4, 2004... No one would deny that for the extremely sensitive nature of bank transactions, better safe than sorry is more than just smart policy on disaster recovery-it's the reality of today's code-red state of mind. But when is enough enough? A growing...

Risky, Rewarding And Very Politically Charged.
May 4, 2004... Overseas outsourcing, or off shoring as it is often referred to, is not a new phenomenon among U.S.-based companies, including some of the biggest financial firms. What is new is the increasing number of mid-size organizations beginning to...

MCUL Launches Radio Spot To Lure Angry Customers.
May 5, 2004... Massachussetts credit unions are looking to capitalize on a potential onslaught of angry bank customers in the wake of the Fleet Boston-Bank of America merger that was consummated earlier this month as the Massachusetts CU League today launches...

On Deadline.
May 5, 2004... MICA Outraged By ABA's Priority List For 2004 WASHINGTON-CUNA President Dan Mica said he was "outraged" last week after the American Bankers Association released a list of priorities that ranked credit union taxation above fighting...

Report Examoines What Drives CU Pricing Decisions.
May 5, 2004... Representatives from many of California's credit unions met with state legislators in an effort to counter charges by the banking industry that credit unions are responsible for a slip in market share by community banks. From 1992 to...

Fresh Ink.
May 5, 2004... 1. Hawaii-based BancWest Corp., a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, will pay $1.2 billion in cash for Community First Bankshares to solidify its position in the West and push into the Midwest. The price represents a 14 percent premium to the average...

....NewsMakers....NewsMakers....NewsMakers....
May 5, 2004... Web Survey Rates Cards A survey of credit card Web site usability has found that Capital One, Amex and Discover provide the best overall on-line experience for customers. The study, conducted by U.S. market research firm Vividence,...

IT Innovation: Programmers are Aching to Get Inventive Again: Products for derivatives trading are one example.
May 5, 2004... After years of being consigned largely to the mundane task of streamlining operations to reduce expenses and control costs, programmers in the brokerage arena have about had it. Their creative juices have been stifled for too long. "If you...

Brazil's CBLC Brings Mark-to-Future to the Masses.
May 5, 2004... CBLC has installed three new versions of Algorithmics's Algo Market since it first chose the product in 2001 to reduce market risk. But its fourth upgrade this spring to Suite 4.4, is proving to be the big enchilada, the one that will...

Coconut Grove's Eye in the E-Sky.
May 5, 2004... Firms are still mulling what to do about instant messaging, the real-time communications tool that's getting very little formal use at financial firms, but moderate to heavy informal use, depending on who's doing the measuring. That's causing...

Retail Banking: Banks Think Globally But Price Locally: Compared to Europe, U.S. prices are just average.
May 6, 2004... American consumers who gripe about exorbitant checking fees and 23 percent credit card interest rates can now put their aggrievement in perspective. A new report from Cap Gemini Ernst & Young finds that when it comes to everyday banking...

Pipeline.
May 6, 2004... Insuring Against Obesity The increasing prevalence of obesity is too significant for the life insurance industry to ignore, according to a Swiss Re study. Recent estimates put obesity in the developed world at around 10 percent to 20...

Politics: Committee Chairman Faces Major Issues, Draws Praise: Progress, but no GSE resolution before election.
May 6, 2004... By the second week of April the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee under the chairmanship of Richard C. Shelby (R-AL) had addressed the two major issues on the committee's agenda for 2004-how to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie...

Government by Goldman.
May 6, 2004... With one foot in the Senate and another gaining purchase at the top rung of the Big Board, Goldman Sachs alums continue big steps through American power corridors. It's not like the elite Street firm's suddenly a Skull-and-Bones, an...

Noted and Noteworthy.
May 6, 2004... Not to be grim, but when this outfit loses customers, it's no shame to tip a cap to the competition. Wells Fargo's Elder Services unit- practically, if not completely, unique in the business-is a small one, tailored to the firm's oldest...

Projections See Stronger Economy; Effect Of Rising Rates Is Questioned.
May 6, 2004... There was wide agreement that the recession dragging on the U.S. economy is over. But as a group of economists and other analysts made clear to credit unions here, there is also wide disagreement over how long that recovery will last, and what...

The Ubiquitous Solution: Provincial Limits Lead Canadian CU To Charter Bank.
May 6, 2004... Unable to expand beyond its geographic field of membership in the Canadian province of British Columbia, Prospera Credit Union has chartered an online financial institution that knows no boundaries: Ubiquity Bank. With just three...

NCUA Examiners Get The OK For Union Elections.
May 6, 2004... Federal labor authorities last week rejected an NCUA bid to prevent examiners from joining a proposed union, setting the stage for agency employees to hold a union election. "This is the last step (of the appeals process). Now we move to...

Columbia CU: 'Members Depositors, Not Owners'.
May 6, 2004... The ongoing legal battle in the wake of the attempted conversion of Columbia Credit Union to a mutual savings bank took a new turn recently, as attorneys for the credit union asserted members are merely depositors-not owners-and therefore have...

On Deadline.
May 6, 2004... Riverside County's CU OK'd For Broad FOM RIVERSIDE, Calif.-Riverside County's CU said it received approval from state regulators to add five million residents in several surrounding communities to its field of membership. Under an order...

Americans Given A 'D' For Financial Knowledge.
May 7, 2004... For the second consecutive year, Americans were given a "D" by Bankrate.com in its Financial Literacy Survey. The company described Americans as in "debt denial" and as being generally unwilling to admit credit is a problem. The survey...

California League VP, Bannan, Dies.
May 7, 2004... California Credit Union League Vice President Kim Bannan has died following complications from a heart attack. A 10-year veteran of the CCUL, Bannan oversaw the league's various diversity programs and was very involved in programs to...

Union, CUNA Mutual Remain At Odds.
May 7, 2004... The union representing 1,400 CUNA Mutual Group employees has filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board accusing the company of engaging in illegal acts during the negotiations over a contract proposal that was rejected by the...

Worth Noting.
May 7, 2004... 2 Keynoters For PALS Meeting BOSTON-Two new keynote speakers have been added to share their ideas on reaching first-time homebuyers as part of NCUA Board Member Debbie Matz' PALS workshop to be held here June 2. Nelson Merced, New England...

Read This Column, Then Send Me A Few Thousand Bucks.
May 7, 2004... I begin with an upfront disclaimer: With the exception of the aged, I have difficulty mustering up much sympathy for those who lose thousands of dollars-and sometimes more-after receiving an anonymous e- mail from someone they've never heard of...

Keeping CUs a Step Ahead of the Hacks.
May 7, 2004... These days, securing information systems for a credit union can be a challenge on a global scale. Just ask Peter Simonson. As vp of Information Systems for Arizona State Savings and Credit Union, he's in charge of protecting in excess of $900...

SunGard, IPFS Launch First CD Execution Tool: Cambridge Bank tests Electronic Transaction Network.
May 7, 2004... As the demand for loans heats up through the summer, bankers around the country will face the need to increase deposits to help fund their balance sheets. Michael Carlino, president and CEO of Cambridge Bank, has high hopes for the...

Building Wealth Services So Investors Can Reap More Than Their Fair Share: ShareBuilder eases cost of entry for financial firms.
May 7, 2004... There's nothing worse than turning away a customer, but most banks have little to offer people with an extra $50 to $75 a month who want to invest in the stock market. It's a missed opportunity for both, especially since someone interested...

Homestar's New Image Spiffs Up Loan Lifecycle: Document management software improves workflow.
May 7, 2004... Some of the biggest innovation in mortgage banking is happening in the back office, tucked out of sight from customers and investors, yet with major ramifications for how quickly and efficiently a mortgage can be approved, closed, bundled and...

Customer Acquisition: Branching Out In Big Ways: What drives bank branch performance: prime location, technology or deposit growth? All of the above.
May 7, 2004... Vernon hill, chairman and chief executive of $24 billion-asset Commerce Bancorp, has become one of the country's hottest bankers by way of the branch-and he claims to be just getting started. This year, his fast-growing Cherry Hill, NJ,...

Editor's Bias On Conversions Reflected In Coverage.
May 10, 2004... The April 5, 2004 editor column once again made it clear that Co- Publisher/Editor Frank J. Diekmann of The Credit Union Journal personally opposes any credit union's conversion to the bank charter. Thus, newsroom staffers, following his...

Product & Service.
May 10, 2004... CenCorp Cuts Processing Costs SOUTHFIELD, Mich.-The $2.3-billion Central Corporate Credit Union (CenCorp) said it is reducing its share draft pricing by 13%, which will reduce total charges paid by members by about $600,000 annually. The...

Getting Into The Trust Business: Trusts Offer Great Promise, But Only If Certain Steps Taken First.
May 10, 2004... Over the past three decades, the range of financial services that credit unions offer has grown in complexity and sophistication to keep pace with members' needs. The next logical step in expanding that continuum of financial products may be...

Where The Advantage Lies In Examining Tax Exemption.
May 10, 2004... There has been quite a bit of discussion recently concerning the taxation of credit unions. It seems as if this issue is once again rearing its ugly head and it is, of course, the banking industry that is holding a magnifying glass to it. ...

Wescom CU Expanding Into Commercial Real Estate Lending.
May 10, 2004... Wescom Credit Union recently opened a commercial real estate division, with an emphasis on loans for small-to mid-size apartment buildings. While many credit unions have avoided commercial lending because of the risks involved, Cathy...

Lessons from the Dark Side: Avoiding Mistakes in Overseas Outsourcing.
May 10, 2004... Most financial services firms offshore at least one function-call centers, software design, telemarketing, back-office processing, IT maintenance, accounting services-and they're discovering that the path to promised cost savings may be...

The Great Divide: Customer segmentation is a staple of CRM, and Royal Bank of Canada has embraced it in an effort to maximize profits. But Commerce Bank makes little use of it, and is still posting big numbers. Can both institutions be right?
May 10, 2004... The numbers "80" and "20" get tossed around quite a bit by bankers, a numerical representation of how the greatest percentage of profits is derived from a small percentage of customers. The idea, of course, is that if you can identify the...

Wireless Banking Initiatives Move Ahead Full Steam, But Without Blowing Their Horns: Penetration of wireless PDAs, cellphones grows.
May 10, 2004... Wireless projects abound at a number of institutions, with efforts to improve services to customers, branch and staff, though initiatives are happening without much of the fanfare reserved for other e-banking innovations. Wireless banking...

BofA's 'Customer Voice' Sounds Off in ePayments: Free and easy-to-use tool helps grab half of market.
May 10, 2004... Bank of America's execs list a number of reasons for the institution's sweeping success in the bank Internet bill-payment market, most notably their "voice of the customer" program that's an integral part of the business case built for almost...

Cash Management: Platforms Go Upstream: The right cash-management system can generate an ROI of between 30 and 50 percent. Does your platform do that?
May 10, 2004... Web-based cash-management systems for businesses, those banks in a box that allow companies to handle most of their own banking needs, have gone mainstream-and upscale. "As corporations evolve and more willingly embrace Internet banking,...

To: Paul From: Alan Re: Wall Street: Over the last few years Washington has been a tough place to get hard information, i.e. on paper. Courtesy of the former Treasury Secretary, a few docs float to the surface.
May 11, 2004... Paul O'Neill sure kicked up a ruckus. But this isn't about O'Neill's star turn in The Price of Loyalty, Ron Suskind's Beltway page-turner, so those spoiling for a fight right away can calm down. I haven't read the book through yet myself...

Counterfeit Checks are The Forgotten Fraud: With all the attention on ID theft, old-fashioned check fraud is getting easier than ever. It may actually account for the majority of cases categorized as identity-related crime.
May 11, 2004... Only a few decades ago, fooling a bank into cashing a counterfeit check required forgery skills, a nomadic attitude and steady confidence. Modern technology, however, has since lowered the bar. "It's probably about 2,000 times easier today...

Key to Home Lending is In Multicultural Markets: Financial firms are ramping up efforts aimed at emerging markets and anticipate a deluge of new mortgage business. Community outreach and education are crucial.
May 11, 2004... Economists and bankers predict that ethnic groups, particularly immigrants and other first-time homebuyers, will be a booming segment for new mortgage business, even as interest rates rise. Banks several years into multicultural marketing...

AD Beat: The Quiet Midwesterner Speaks at Last: One of the largest non-New York-based brokerage firms pipes up after more than a century of silence with an inaugural national campaign preaching ethics and devotion.
May 11, 2004... After 117 years of low-key, referral marketing, St. Louis-based A.G. Edwards is launching its first mass media campaign. Less saucy than Charles Schwab, but more so than Morgan Stanley, the $20 million national print, television and on-line...

Rekindling the Magic, One Campaign at a T[bar]me: Mad Ave.'s been turned upside-down. John Staffen landed at Arnold Worldwide, New York and says imagination is the ad industry's missing link.
May 11, 2004... Like banking, the advertising industry is increasingly dominated by a handful of large conglomerates. And just as on Wall Street, Madison Avenue has seen many changes in its executive suites. Arnold Worldwide, owned by the smallest of the "big...

The Role that e-Banking Plays in Fighting ID Theft.
May 11, 2004... On-line banking has made lives easier by reducing paper checks and statements, not to mention cutting the cost of postage and time involved writing and handling checks. Now it seems Web banking and bill payment can also cut down on identity...

U.S. Bank Can Get Satisfactions in Minnesota.
May 11, 2004... U.S. bank is part of what's believed to be the nation's only statewide movement to create a standard for the electronic recording of mortgage satisfactions. The new product is underway in Minnesota, and represents a move that, while simple,...

Data Integration: ING Breaks Out of Its Silos: About 5,000 employees use ING's data-integration technology, which saves the firm about $400,000 per year.
May 11, 2004... The twin pressures of adhering to a deluge of regulatory issues and implementing technology that actually adds real value to the business- such as a holistic view of the customer for sales purposes-are no mean feat. And for financial services...

Experts Pummel Microsoft's Sarbanes-Oxley Play.
May 11, 2004... Compliance with all the rules contained in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is proving quite a challenge, and while the act does not mandate technology implementations to cope with the new rules-internal financial reporting controls, record retention,...

Risk Management: Barra Takes Big Swing At Webifying Mitigation: Firm hopes to juice slow adoption of ASP solutions.
May 11, 2004... Often regarded as brainy, unsexy and ancillary to maximizing profits, risk management has assumed a new urgency in the banking industry, as corporate scandals continue to make headlines and recent regulations like Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley...

Product News.
May 12, 2004... The Hartford Financial Services Group has introduced Stag Protector II VUL and Stag Accumulator II VUL. Each offers a choice of three death benefit guarantees as well as optional riders for cost-of-living adjustments and policy continuation....

Tools and Resources.
May 12, 2004... Dearborn has released Making the Client Connection: Maximizing the Power of Your Personality, Presentations and Presence by Gary DeMoss and Mitch Anthony. Chapters cover the emotionally intelligent financial professional, turning conflict into...

Coming Home From Independence: Going independent is usually a one-way street. But Tom Wiseman explains why returning to a bank was a wiser career choice.
May 12, 2004... After trying his luck on the independent side, Tom Wiseman now knows that the grass isn't necessarily greener. Fresh from a two-year stint as an independent, Wiseman rejoined the bank broker business in January, signing up as a financial...

Opening the Marketing Spigot: Need ideas and support for mailings, client events or seminars? Help is available - and here's how to get it.
May 12, 2004... If you're a bank investment consultant looking to build your book, you may be ignoring a goldmine. The riches come in the form of marketing ideas, educational tools and financial and promotional support that wholesalers and third-party...

Engaging the Platform: Licensed bankers hold the key to successful bank brokerage, say reps and managers at the Miami BISA conference.
May 12, 2004... A successful bank brokerage business requires continuous effort and communication among the dedicated securities personnel and those on the platform. That's the consensus of sales managers and dedicated sales reps who discussed the issue...

E-Channels are a Hit, But Paper Still Plays a Big Role.
May 12, 2004... Banking's communication is at a crossroads. Banks must reach new and existing customers through such ever-increasing contact points as e- mail, ATMs and kiosks. At the same time, they must also provide more individualized information. But...

Empowering Tellers with Better Apps.
May 12, 2004... As the new millennium was ushered in, many banking industry pundits predicted the Internet was going to replace physical buildings and leave personal contact in the cyberdust. The World Wide Web has revolutionized many industries, but it...

The Role that e-Banking Plays in Fighting ID Theft.
May 12, 2004... On-line banking has made lives easier by reducing paper checks and statements, not to mention cutting the cost of postage and time involved writing and handling checks. Now it seems Web banking and bill payment can also cut down on identity...

U.S. Bank Can Get Satisfactions in Minnesota.
May 12, 2004... U.S. bank is part of what's believed to be the nation's only statewide movement to create a standard for the electronic recording of mortgage satisfactions. The new product is underway in Minnesota, and represents a move that, while simple,...

Data Integration: ING Breaks Out of Its Silos: About 5,000 employees use ING's data-integration technology, which saves the firm about $400,000 per year.
May 12, 2004... The twin pressures of adhering to a deluge of regulatory issues and implementing technology that actually adds real value to the business- such as a holistic view of the customer for sales purposes-are no mean feat. And for financial services...

Unsettled State of Estate Taxes Puzzles Bank Advisors.
May 13, 2004... If no two things in life are more certain than death and taxes, leave it to the government to make taxes upon death uncertain - at least after 2010. That's the year the federal estate tax exemption - which will be increasing until 2010 -...

Spotlight on Southern California.
May 13, 2004... This month, BIC talks to three sales managers responsible for Southern California about business in the Golden State: Vern Aguirre, California region executive for Banco Popular; Per-Johan Berger, vice president of products and marketing for...

One If by Land, Two If by Sidhu: The blustery Nor'east may not own the blues. But it's been the crossroads for many over the last few years, showing what can happen when mid-size players get caught in the middle. Sovereign's Jay Sidhu, among others, hopes to get his due by getting word out to the countryside.
May 13, 2004... Fifteen years of hard work and deal-making have brought Jay Sidhu to an intriguing crossroad. His Philadelphia-based Sovereign Bancorp is a frequent subject of takeover talk. At least one source close to the thrift says Sidhu, the chairman and...

A House Strong as Its Weakest Link?: Top returns this year again echo Greenspan's interest rates. Flagstar, Fremont, TCF benefit. Can it continue?
May 13, 2004... Let the arguments over size and real estate continue, as USB's annual tea- leaf reading of bank and thrift performance provides a wide variety of results. First is that Flagstar, heading a surprising phalanx of home lenders, continues to...

In Farm Country, Chief Banks And Bottle Washers: Population loss in small-town America changes the rules and rhythms of daily life, turning the local bankers into much more than people who count money.
May 13, 2004... On a recent April day Terry Jorde, president and CEO of $37 million Country Bank in Cando, ND, spent the morning sifting through applications to help select a new CEO for the local hospital. After a brief time in the bank to get some work...

A Little Extra in the Pocket This Month: A new initiative through the Independent Community Bankers Association lets member banks profit from mortgage reinsurance by spreading the risk. It's a boon for community banks, but don't forget to read the fine print.
May 13, 2004... The Independent Community Bankers of America has launched a mortgage reinsurance program in conjunction with Mortgage Insurance Guarantee Corp. that allows its members to earn insurance premiums they previously couldn't. ICBA is the...