Bank Technology News articles from August 2004

Bank Technology News archives from August 2004

Security Patches: Plugging The Leaks In The Dike: Have banks learned from BofA's 2003 error?(Bank of America )
August 2, 2004... With banks spending more than $1 billion a year to seal gaps in applications and operating systems, patch management has become one of bank CIOs' toughest headaches, according to BITS, the technology arm of the Financial Services Roundtable. So...

HNW Services: MassMutual's In the eMoney: Product helps advisers hike assets, sales.(Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance)
August 2, 2004... It's not often that a pilot program involving a mere four financial advisers yields $100 million in assets under management in 12 months, but that was the good fortune of Massachusetts Mutual Insurance Co., which has seen fit to accelerate the...

Political Contribution Management: Arnold Webifies His War Chest: Calnet deposits and e-registers donations.
August 2, 2004... The series of events that led Arnold Schwarzenegger from the set of films like "The Terminator" and "True Lies" to the California governor's office was unusual to say the least. A subtler nugget of the "Kindergarten Cop's" political prowess is...

In Bill Pay, Banks Poised to Dominate.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Banks whose bill-payment services were slow to take off are ready to reap big rewards. What's key? Keeping it free. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.banktechnews.com

Edit Index.(Illustration)
August 2, 2004... A ABN Amro 37 Arrow Path Venture Capital 37 Atchley Systems 54 Automated Clearing House 10 B Bank Intranet 37 Bank of Almeda ...

CIOs are Getting Serious About the Obvious.(chief information officers)
August 2, 2004... As the banking sector heads into the fall, chief information officers and their line-of-business counterparts are reexamining the processes and priorities for 2005. Improved profits, increased compliance requirements and the prospect of stepped...

e-Payments: Wachovia Matriculates Payment Codes: IDs for educational donors get a start at the University of Florida.(universal identification code)
August 2, 2004... A higher form of identification is making its commercial debut at an institution of higher learning, as the University of Florida adopts the Electronic Payments Network's universal identification code (UPIC), a new means to speed payments and...

News Makers.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Bush Signs Law On ID Theft President Bush last month inked a measure that imposes mandatory prison terms for those who use identity theft in committing terrorist acts. A criminal will serve an extra five years for using a false passport in...

Top Tech Deals.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Number one IBM signed a five-year IT services agreement worth more than 100 million euros with HSH Nordbank and its subsidiary Plus Bank. IBM Global services will design, host and operate applications, such as trading, security systems and...

Smart Cards: Brazil Moves Fast To Meet '06 Standards Deadline: The MasterCard-Visa measure takes hold soon, and a market with a bent on innovation is getting ready.(Europay MasterCard Visa)
August 2, 2004... Brazil is moving faster than its Latin American neighbors in meeting the January 2006 deadline set to comply with EMV standards set globally for Latin America, Europe and Asia. "Brazil is one of the first countries in Latin America to move...

Deals: Tech Shops Are Partying Like It's 1999 (again): A better economy and improvements in the capital markets are leading to an M&A and IPO renewal.
August 2, 2004... The financial technology sector's entered a '90s retro phase, where phrases that had fallen out of fashion-merger and acquisition, business confidence, strong economic growth and IPO- are back in vogue. While buyers still aren't lining up...

Techies.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of UK bank Barclays, named Amy Nauiokas to the newly created position of director and head of e-commerce. Fiserv SourceOne expanded its executive team by naming Jeff Brandmaier as president and...

Message Board.(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... "Making a lot of money. That's valuable." Peter Lee, CEO of DataSynapse, on the ways technology can assist business. "Now there's technology so that you can take pictures with a cellphone and send them. That's a cheap thrill." ...

On-line Billing: Banks, Third-party Sites Will Rule Bill-pay Roost: By 2008, competition will be hot, hot, hot. So don't even think about charging for the service: free is in.
August 2, 2004... Electronic bill payment will soon be dominated by banks and third-party Web sites, rather than through scheduled direct payments and on-line bill payments through billers' Web sites, according to Financial Insights analyst Aaron McPherson....

At Identrus, Wendel Steers Digital Authentication: The consortium's CEO runs a 67-bank network with an energy sparked, in part, by her love of auto racing.(Interview)
August 2, 2004... Identrus CEO Karen Wendel says running the bank consortium for digital identity authentication can sometimes feel like urging a temperamental Porsche 911 around a racetrack. Having spent four years as an amateur racer on a Porsche corporate...

Capital Markets: Google Goes Dutch, Rocking Ipo Sector: Google's Dutch-auction IPO was a bold choice, an indication the capital-raising business isn't just for big investment banks anymore. If other firms follow, will an industry revolution ensue?
August 2, 2004... The headline-grabbing IPO of search engine Google has flipped the floodlights on new-issue underwriting-Wall Street's most lucrative line of businesses and one of the last to become automated. Google's electronic, Dutch-auction IPO...

Trade Finance: E-advices Are Music To Bolero's Ears: Dozens of European and Asian banks already are using the firm to automate letter-of-credit advices in an effort to smooth out cross-border finance. Its product is now available to U.S. banks.(Bolero (USA))
August 2, 2004... In the pantheon of financial transactions, international trade finance poses particularly thorny challenges when it comes to automation; this is mainly due to the legal and regulatory rules peculiar to each sovereign nation. But it doesn't...

Business Banking: Union Bank Opens Check 21 University: The bank's seminars with Carreker aim to educate business customers on the legislation, its requirements, and its potential benefits as checking becomes more electronic than ever before.(Union Bank and Trust)
August 2, 2004... Given the industry chatter and column inches dedicated to Check 21, it would seem inconceivable there's anyone who doesn't know about the potential triumph-someday-over physical checks. But there's still a knowledge gap, particularly in...

Marketing: Barclays Takes Aim With Predictive Analytics: The UK's third-largest bank is using KXEN technology to improve targeted marketing.(Barclays Bank )
August 2, 2004... New software is allowing bank marketers to use sophisticated statistical techniques to fine-tune their campaigns while cutting costs and increasing success rates, moving predictive modeling, once the domain of expert statisticians, even closer...

Military Banking: Banks Get Automated To Serve Strapped Soldiers: Extended tours make remote access a key part of serving GIs stationed abroad.
August 2, 2004... Conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are hitting customers hard as soldiers spend large amounts of time away from their families, and in the case of reservists-jobs and businesses. Bank of America and Eisenhower Bank are turning to channels...

10 Technology Companies to watch.
August 2, 2004... There's something to be said for having the foresight to be in the right business at the right time. It is the underlying thread that binds BTN's 10 Technology Companies to Watch-all making big waves in financial services. Among our picks, each...

On-line Billing: Customer Literacy, Software Cut Errors: BofA, Frost Bank, Bank Rhode Island and others have found consumer Web literacy and streamlined tools can help reduce blunders. The equation will likely never be perfect.
August 2, 2004... As more bill payments go electronic, billing errors are going down-but switching banking customers from the paper check to keyboard and mouse still isn't seamless. People can type in wrong amounts, misplace decimal points, hit the enter key too...

Wireless Banking: News of Its Demise Is Greatly Exaggerated: Sure, full-fledged wireless banking flopped when Wells tried it in 2001. But other banks have had success with elements like text-message alerts. Next up: bill payment.
August 2, 2004... The announcement came like a bolt of lightning. Wells Fargo would tap the wireless banking business. Not just dip its toes in, mind you-but take an all-out plunge that would put an Acapulco cliff diver to shame. The date was Feb. 7, 2001....

Managing Expansion: Tackling It Security When A Bank Grows: As community banks expand via acquisition, they're struggling to secure operations and systems, while keeping a lid on costs. They want the feds to provide guidance.
August 2, 2004... Community banks are getting larger, and they want the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) to provide minimum standards for securing operations and systems, particularly as banks' assets and branches increase. IT chiefs at several local...

IT spending: Key Taps Troux To Track IT Costs: Nearly one-third of all technology investments are now being made outside the IT department. Banks want a way to keep tabs on diverse spending-and its efficiencies. Enter, Troux.(Key Bank)(Troux Technologies)
August 2, 2004... Next year, Cleveland-based Key Bank plans to implement a new tool from Troux Technologies designed to help banks do something that a surprising number of them don't already: track IT costs. Key is now using other Troux products to prepare...

Turning Basel II Compliance Into A Competitive Advantage.
August 2, 2004... The Basel II Capital Accord is the latest in a long line of regulatory requirements to emerge in international financial services. While many companies view Basel II as a costly and often confusing exercise in regulatory compliance, an...

Automating Fight on Money Laundering.
August 2, 2004... Financial organizations have been required to comply with the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) since it took effect, but recent BSA enforcement actions and a heightened awareness by regulators make compliance in this area more important now than ever. In...

Economic Recovery Whets Latin Banks' Technology Appetites.
August 2, 2004... With Latin American economies largely on the rebound, technology bargains cropping up and increasingly sophisticated infrastructure in place, expectations are strong that a host of favorable factors will blow some wind into the sails of bank...

Orchestrating Integration Strategies.
August 2, 2004... Financial institutions (FIs) are faced with a number of challenges today - amongst others, they operate in an environment of intense competition from traditional as well as non-traditional players. Faced with this challenge, it is a question of...

First Data: Trusted Experts in Latin America.
August 2, 2004... Determining the right solution for your payment processing needs can mean the difference between a successful operation tailored to unique market requirements and an operation that is inflexible and outdated. From issuing to acquiring, First...

Procesa: Customizing Services With The Visionplus System.(Processing Center S.A.)(Brief Article)
August 2, 2004... Processing Center, S.A. (PROCESA) is a world-class payment processing services company offering flexible solutions tailored to the needs of the Latin America and Caribbean marketplace. Located in Panama City, Panama, PROCESA's wide range of...