Canadian Banker articles from May 1999

Canadian Banker archives from May 1999

Banking without paper.
May 1, 1999... At branches of the Union Bank of Norway, the only piece of paper the customer sees is a numbered queuing ticket. That's just the beginning of paperless banking at the "branch bank of tomorrow." The paperless bank is a reality. It's already...

Joint venturer.
May 1, 1999... Co-operative enterprise is a particular interest of the head of CIBC's back-room subsidiary. Harriet Velazquez says the CIBC subsidiary intria Corp. can be likened to a human heart. She describes both as "often invisible" but...

Service fees and the GST.
May 1, 1999... Bank service fees rank right up there with the GST among the things Canadians love to loathe. But that's not the only thing they have in common. Neither the GST nor service fees existed 20 years ago. Both were introduced in response to...

Birth of a profession.
May 1, 1999... Outside Quebec, financial planners in Canada have been able to operate without having to meet any national standard of proficiency. That's about to change. For months now, Ray Protti, president and CEO of the Canadian Bankers Association,...

The ICB gets ready to train the bankers of the 21st century.
May 1, 1999... Canada's premier financial-services educational institution, the Institute of Canadian Bankers, has been reorganized to bring its programs more closely into line with the needs of the banking industry. Its new client-focused approach should...

New head of ICB enjoys a challenge.
May 1, 1999... 'I've always been intrigued by the world of business in general and I've always been relatively ambitious," says Lynn Jeanniot, the newly appointed executive director of the Institute of Canadian Bankers. A Montreal native, Jeanniot believes...

Microcredit moves to mainstream.
May 1, 1999... Microfinance may still be more of an art than a science, but banks are looking at ways of making small loans to those who may lack credit or collateral. 'We believe the next decade will see the streamlining of microfinance and the blurring...

News Bytes.
May 1, 1999... Portable bank access Transaction software developed by 724 Solutions has been acquired by Bank of Montreal and Bell Mobility to provide customers with convenient and secure banking and brokerage services over multiple Internet access...

Web-enabled ABM.
May 1, 1999... The automated banking machine has begun its transition into the automated services machine, according to NCR Corp., which has introduced Canada's first fully integrated, Web-enabled ABM, incorporating browser technology developed for the...

Hand-held OCR device.
May 1, 1999... The iris Banking Reader is a multi-functional data entry device that scans information found on financial documents. It can recognize elements such as bar codes, handwritten numbers, printed or typed text and specialized fonts. A text-to-speech...

Relationship Marketing.
May 1, 1999... IBM Canada has introduced what it calls the finance industry's first complete relationship marketing solution. DecisionEdge allows banks to analyze customer behaviour and use this knowledge for a variety of research and marketing purposes.

Mortgage servicing forum an industry first.
May 1, 1999... Mortgage financing, both residential and commercial, is awakening to new marketplace dynamics and possibilities. No longer the cornerstone of all retail banking relationships - wealth management has taken over that role - the mortgage business...

CBA names new director of government relations.
May 1, 1999... The Canadian Bankers Association has appointed Dave Robinson director of government relations in Ottawa. Prior to joining the CBA, Robinson was executive assistant to Defence Minister Art Eggleton. The minister's executive assistant is...

Video helps reduce the financial abuse of seniors.
May 1, 1999... With financial abuse of elderly people at an all-time high, the B.C. Coalition to Eliminate Abuse of Seniors (b.c. ceas) has produced a training video to alert staff of financial institutions to the dangers of financial abuse and possible ways...

What ISO 14001 means for the banking industry.
May 1, 1999... Developments in both environmental law and society's expectations are adding a new wrinkle to the business of determining which companies are likely to prosper and be able to meet their repayment obligations consistently. This wrinkle is...

News Briefs.
May 1, 1999... Canada ranks 10th in world competitiveness Buoyed by strong performance in the areas of quality of financial services, including the banks, and management, Canada remained in 10th spot, for the third year in a row, in the latest annual...

Mondex to begin new testing.
May 1, 1999... Mondex electronic cash is to be introduced to the Sherbrooke, Que., region this summer. Mondex Canada and participating financial institutions, Royal Bank and Mouvement des caisses Desjardins, have been in the region meeting with city...

Banks accepting donations for Balkan relief.
May 1, 1999... Canadians are now able to make financial donations to the "Canadian Red Cross - Balkan Appeal" campaign at any branch of the Big Six banks as well as BCI Bank of Canada, Canadian Western Bank, Hongkong Bank of Canada, Sottomayor Bank Canada and...

CMHC reduces approval fees.
May 1, 1999... Fast approval for cmhc mortgage insurance is now cheaper. The standard fee for homeowner loan insurance applications processed through emili, the federal housing agency's electronic processing system, have dropped from $235 to $165.

Card service gets a million calls.
May 1, 1999... MasterCard Global Service, said to be the only customer service program of its kind in the payments industry, has serviced more than one million card-related requests since it was introduced in 1995. In Canada, 36,000 cardholders used the...

Fuji bank joins IBOS.
May 1, 1999... The ibos Association, which includes Scotiabank and its affiliate, Banco Inverlat of Mexico, has announced that Fuji Bank of Japan has joined the group. Headquartered in London, England, ibos is an international banking alliance that allows...

Bizarre Banking.
May 1, 1999... FRAUDSTER picks the wrong bank Customer service rep Melinda Cain was helping a new customer open an account at her bank branch in Winston-Salem, N.C., when she noticed something very odd: the would-be patron had the same name, birthdate and...

U.S. COUNTERFEITERS' TIP: KNOW YOUR PRESIDENTS.
May 1, 1999... Police in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., have arrested Tracey L. Wilcox, 18, for passing counterfeit money. At a local bank, he tried to pass off a fake $50 bill bearing the likeness of Andrew Jackson (who usually appears on the $20 U.S. bank note)...

CHEQUE ARTIST'S DIET WINS HIM EARLY RELEASE.
May 1, 1999... In Fairfax, Va., recently, Neil H. Lederman, 43, got 11 months in the slammer for writing a bad cheque, but local jail officials released him after only three weeks because they couldn't afford the kosher food he eats. Kosher meals would...

EBP Revisited.
May 1, 1999... Electronic billing, with its benefits for consumers and for companies, is quickly moving closer. As a freelance writer I make a lot of phone calls, many of them to exotic and interesting locales such as Smith's Falls, Poughkeepsie and...

Where's the value in bank service fees?
May 1, 1999... Consumers may complain they're being "nickelled and dimed to death" by bank service charges, but the fact is they get pretty good value for those fees - especially if they take the trouble to shop around. The industry has embarked on a new...

Free fee advice for consumers.
May 1, 1999... 'You may be paying too much in bank service fees," says a TV commercial now being aired across the country in a five-week campaign promoting the CBA's new booklet, Getting Value for Your Service Fees. The 20-page booklet, available free of...

Small-business report card.
May 1, 1999... There were more than one million small businesses (revenues of $5 million or less) operating in Canada in 1995. Almost a quarter of them were manufacturing firms, 21% were in wholesale trade and 18% were in retail trade. The average revenue for...

The evolution of the branch manager.
May 1, 1999... The job of managing a bank branch - and the skills and education required to do it - are radically different today from what they were only two decades ago. Paulo Pizzuto keeps a sketch of the ideal bank branch manager in his pocket....

FAQs about Y2K.
May 1, 1999... What Canadians want to know about the impact of Y2K on their finances. Concerned about the possible effects of the Year 2000 Problem, some Canadians wonder if they should take special precautions with their bank accounts, investments and...