Bank Technology News articles from April 2006

Bank Technology News archives from April 2006

Asset Management Systems: Back Offices Are Set For A Core Revolution: Six years after Y2K, the industry's ripe for swap-outs.
April 1, 2006... In a serendipitous arrival for this year's IT budgets, many asset management firms derived the same mathematical conclusion: Y2006 > Y2K. Following years in which market pressure, regulatory change and investor quests for far-off hedging...

Improving Execution: UBOC's E-Fixup: It's Web-enabling fund trades, and bringing STP to ACH payments.(Union Bank )
April 1, 2006... More than a decade into the Internet banking age, there are still a handful of bumpy roads that haven't been paved by Web innovation, and Union Bank is working to smooth out a pair of them: invoices for business clients and mutual fund trading...

Foreign Currency: CLS Gets Strong Reviews: Members applaud efficiency as exchange makes third-party growth plans.(Continuous Linked Settlement, CLS Bank)
April 1, 2006... Prior to the implementation of the Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) Bank in the fall of 2002, there were worries that the advantage of a real-time foreign exchange platform could be turned on its ear. The CLS Bank's structure as a...

Editor's Note.(Correction notice)
April 1, 2006... In "Cutting to the Chase" (March 2006), the author incorrectly attributed a quote to Kerry Corthell, vp of regulatory compliance at National City. The quote should have appeared with the correct attribution as follows: "To me, that takes out...

In a Flat World, Everything Of Value is Connected.
April 1, 2006... You may disagree with Thomas Friedman's politics (left) or even his writing style (conversational), but one thing is hard to refute: his understanding of innovation globally and the impact it is already having on the United States. And the pace...

Enterprise Content Management: Honey, I Shrunk The Doc Management System: Regulatory niches are becoming an ECM specialty, as when Systemware went down market with a big-bank tool to aid a community bank's growing compliance needs.
April 1, 2006... When FDIC examiners paid a scheduled visit to Cindy Dickens last year, one wonders if the team made a wrong turn on its way to Charlotte, NC, and wound up in the far-flung, rural Dallas exurb of Farmersville. Why else would they be...

News Makers.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Data Breach Bill OK'd; voids state Measures The U.S. House Financial Services Committee approved a data security measure that grants identity theft victims a new measure of protection, including credit freezes, while creating national...

Security: ID Theft Insight: In 2005, data breaches seemed rampant in financial services. But an analysis of public information on 70 data breaches shows the education sector took the biggest hit.
April 1, 2006... Make no mistake, data breaches are serious business and should be cause for action. But recent analysis of publicly available information on 70 data incursions that occurred in 2005 found that few of the identities compromised appear to have...

Paper Checks: What To Do With The Paper That Remains: U.S. Bancorp is jobbing out the management of its paper check programs in an attempt to reduce infrastructure burden as checking becomes increasingly complex.
April 1, 2006... Electronic checking, Web bill pay and other alternative means to move money are growing, but it will likely be many years before paper checks are marginalized to the point of insignificance for banks, if it ever happens. So as banks ramp...

Top Tech Deals.(ING sells its Security Master File platform to Capco's Reference Data Services division, TeleCheck Services acquires ClearCheck, Actimize works with IBM)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Number One ING plans to sell its Security Master File platform to Capco's Reference Data Services division in order for Capco to provide ING with fully managed reference data services. The parties say the deal will allow Capco to greatly...

Techies.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Wachovia Securities hired Marge Connelly as COO and President of its Business Services Group, which includes the IT functions of the brokerage. Washington Mutual hired Nandita Bakhshi as evp and manager of payments in its retail banking...

Top Tech Trends: Crooks And Regs: The Mothers Of Invention?: Experts differ on what new product innovation will dominate in '06. But they all say product rollouts trail compliance and security in importance.
April 1, 2006... In a perfect world, banks like to use new technology to attract the attention and the business of their customers, while gaining cost efficiencies where possible. These days, though, technology strategy is equally fixated on addressing security...

Message Board.
April 1, 2006... "That's not to say it should be forced down their throats." Jacob Jegher, senior analyst at Celent, on how a bank's corporate culture and past IT practices can slow the pace of adoption of new technology. "The only industry that has...

Mobile Phone Content: Banks, Carriers Plan Payments Collaboration: Rather than compete for billing provision in the mobile phone content space, telecoms and banks will leverage strengths and work together in the $55 billion market.
April 1, 2006... In less than two years, revenues in the mobile phone content business will more than triple as consumers graduate from the occasional game or ring tone purchase to habitual use of Internet and downloadable video services on 3G handsets,...

Online Mortgage Delivery: Fannie And Freddie Await An E-boom: GSE execs say innovation at all stages of the lending process and pressure from the waning refi boom spell imminent growth in the Web-enabled mortgage secondary market.
April 1, 2006... For most new technology-including everything from cars to radios to television - there's a point when adoption reaches what pundits call a "hockey stick curve." This is when everyone "gets it" and embraces the advantages of the new technology,...

Supply Chain Finance: BofA Cuts Overhead For Overseas Biz Customers: Partnership with PrimeRevenue allows the bank to automate and smooth out supply chain finance.(Bank of America Corp.)
April 1, 2006... Bank of America has relationships with four out of every five of the global Fortune 500 companies, so when the bank saw an opportunity to automate a manual piece of cross-border finance, it grabbed it. By partnering with PrimeRevenue, the...

Market Intelligence: Commerce Takes A Crash Course: The KC bank is using detailed knowledge about specific lines of business and market conditions to give its interaction with business clients added sophistication.(Commerce Bank N.A., Kansas City)
April 1, 2006... Any career counselor worth his salt would suggest studying not just a company before a job interview, but learning as much as humanly possible about that firm's market, its competitors, and the latest economic performance in its line of...

Patently Unaware: Bankers breathing easier because their Blackberry still work have no cause for relief over patent disputes in their industry. Intellectual property litigation is a booming business against financial institutions.(DataTreasury Corp.)
April 1, 2006... With a hit list of more than 70 names casting a BlackBerry-shaped shadow over the industry, DataTreasury still plays the underdog in its legal battles with the big boys. "The U.S. financial industry is treating them...much more...

DataTreasury's Hit List.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... DataTreasury Corp. has named more than 70 banks, holding companies, exchange networks and technology firms (some duplicative) in federal patent infringement lawsuits since 2003, after it received two patents covering remote capture and storage...

Technology 2015: Niche specialists and customer empowerment mean a devolving role for financial institutions in their own industry. How crucial are Web services, technology and innovation in maintaining banks' importance-and necessity?
April 1, 2006... Remember full-course meals on airlines? Or travel agents? How about when brokers were the only avenue into trading, and lending officers made the call on mortgage decisions? If those memories bring out any laments, Jerry Rao just laughs....

Fraud Prevention: Engaging More Than The Enemy: Banks could improve anti-fraud measures if they provided tools that draft customers into the battle. But it's not that simple for an industry still rife with soft spots.
April 1, 2006... As much attention as identity theft and fraud receive in the banking industry, one would think financial institutions had gotten the message: overkill works. If customers want locks on their personal information, banks should respond with...

Compliance: The New Rule Book Is Still Like A Maze: There are so many new regulations that banks are having difficulty organizing their corporate structure to ensure these new rules are being adequately followed.
April 1, 2006... Not since the 1930s has there been such of wave of regulatory actions. The difference this time-making the compliance challenge more pervasive-lies in what prompted the regulatory wave: the crisis of confidence following the dot-com bubble;...

A Better Way To Coach IT Victories, Value.
April 1, 2006... As financial institutions have slashed costs subsequent to merger activity and competitive pressures, a key focus since the end of the technology related expansion of the late '90s has been managing technology spending. Many banks are...