Bank Technology News articles from December 2005

Bank Technology News archives from December 2005

Call Centers: Taking A Heavy Load Off Of Reps' Shoulders: Banks are stressing quality of calls over quantity.
December 1, 2005... An apparent technical snafu had IT managers flummoxed. Customers phoning into a Buffalo, NY, banking call center were being disconnected at an astonishingly high rate, most often less than a minute after being placed on hold. A quick-turn...

Proxy Voting Automation: Web Builds Bridge To 'street-level': The BRT says e-delivery improves communication.
December 1, 2005... While the Business Roundtable and other corporate organizations ask the SEC to change rules prohibiting public companies from direct contact with street-level "objecting beneficial owners" (OBOs) of shares, intermediaries are making hay with...

Mortgage: Quickening Execution: Rollouts focus on faster fulfillment and pricing.
December 1, 2005... Talk of a mortgage bubble and higher rates has been dominating the mortgage market for most of the past year. There's a lot of uncertainty to the chatter, but one thing that's become readily apparent is a need for improved automation in loan...

Edit Index.
December 1, 2005... A, B Accenture 39 Aetna 36 AMR Research 41 AOL 20 AppLabs Technology 41 ARC Systems ...

Corrections.(Correction Notice)
December 1, 2005... In a story on Oracle and SAP in October's BTN, the 13 cross-industry conversions reported for SAP's SafePassage program involving former Oracle ERP customers should have noted those were only U.S. companies. Globally, SAP had converted 23...

Little Sign of Life At BAI's RD Leaves Many Eyeing Show's Fate.
December 1, 2005... It's been many years since Bill Gates held a standing-room-only general session audience spellbound with his presence. While most in the audience presumed he wouldn't lay bare his plans, it was thought the 45-minute keynote would at least shed...

Voip Security Threats: Swimming With The Sleeping Sharks?: Banks' enthusiasm for installing VOIP shows no signs of waning. Will hackers, spammers, phishers and other criminals soon notice and start to take advantage?
December 1, 2005... Three times each month, a client bank of California-based Compushare goes live with voice over Internet protocol (VoIP). The cost savings and improved capabilities of VoIP are making it an attractive choice for Compushare's small community...

News Makers.(MasterCard International Inc. introduced card customization service)(NACHA - The Electronic Payments Association approved rules for corporate checks)(Entrust stated that customers are not willing to use online banking activities)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... MasterCard Offers customized Cards Cardholders with participating MasterCard issuers will be offered the chance to design their own custom card, through MC's new card customization services. After uploading an image to a bank's Website and...

Tougher Authentication: FFIEC Guidance Opens the Door to a Product Parade: The FFIEC missive doesn't specify or mandate a method, but the days of usernames and passwords as the only means of authentication are likely gone for good.
December 1, 2005... In its get-tough-on-cybercrime by the end of 2006 manifesto, the FFIEC doesn't call for a certain brand of authentication, going as far as to say its new guidance "does not endorse any particular technology." But while there may be little...

Top Tech Deals.(Jack Henry & Associates Inc. acquired Profitstar)(Global Access Corp. acquiring ATMs)(International Business Machines Corp. joined Open Invention Network)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Number One Jack Henry & Associates has purchased Profitstar, an asset/liability and profit management system, to add to its growing suite of non-core solutions that can be sold outside of Jack Henry core system relationships. Number...

Techies.(Wausau Financial Systems named Tim Patneaude as CIO)(Hudson Financial Solutions has named Kerry Barrett, Larry Kaufman and Al Miller)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Mellon also is promoting Robert Stasik to head the company's payment solutions investor services sector. * Wausau Financial Systems named Tim Patneaude as CIO and svp of customer care. * Hudson Financial Solutions has named Kerry Barrett, Larry...

Message Board.
December 1, 2005... "It's been on the radar for awhile." Greg Framke, CIO, E*Trade, on government regulators getting involved in mandating stronger user authentication. "There's not enough data to manage the cash." Ralph Dangelmaier, president, P&H...

Paying The Piper: In California, Phishing's Become Less Attractive: A recent state law says electronic fraudsters face civil penalties of up to half a million bucks per incident.
December 1, 2005... California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been facing some unwelcome wrath from voters recently, but there's a good chance the governor would welcome the anger of a very non-special interest group targeted by a recent law-Internet scammers. ...

Web Adoption: Internet Bill Payment Clicks With The Young: Forrester Research details how banks' marketshare growth in online bill pay through 2010 will mushroom as today's under-40, tech-savvy crowd matures.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... In five years, a slight majority (52 percent) of U.S. online households will be paying bills over the Internet. What's driving the adoption? In part, it's the maturation of a young, Web-savvy generation. Logging on at a greater clip than...

Resiliency Planning: All For One and One for All.(Interview)
December 1, 2005... In the competition for customers, banks hold proprietary marketing plans and strategies close to the vest. But when the subject turns to continuity planning, everyone's cards should be on the table. Charles Wallen, a project director for the...

Bankers' Report: 'We're Won Over by Voice Over IP'.
December 1, 2005... When financial institutions first consider the move to Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP), it's often for a very bank-like bottom line reason: to save money. After undergoing due diligence, most decision-makers soon see the opportunities...

Small Business: Data Backup Tapes Are Often Unreliable: But data recovery firm LiveVault says the falling prices of newer disk-based backup and broadband access means firms can get back on their feet quicker when disaster strikes.
December 1, 2005... In early November, an article in The New York Times carried a sobering statistic: Up to half of New Orleans' 115,000 small businesses are expected to fail in the coming months. The article arrives on the heels of an Experian report noting that...

Small Business cash Management: Lake City looks to Awaken a Market: The bank plans to make small firms, which often shy away from the Internet, aware that they can utilize automated services available to large corporations.
December 1, 2005... For Lake City Bank's David Findlay, when it comes to barriers that keep small businesses from adopting Internet-enabled functions like cash management, awareness is always the first hurdle. "The number one challenge is simply client awareness...

User Profiles: Unusual Behavior Is On The Radar At First Citizens: Traditional firewall protections aren't enough anymore, so some firms are looking for out-of-character activity from insiders.
December 1, 2005... Securing customer data from unauthorized access, theft or abuse, requires close, real-time monitoring of the behavior of both the employee and customer users who access Web-based applications, particularly as the effectiveness of traditional...

Service-oriented Architecture: First Tennessee Makes A Service Play: It's among the banks that are using integration and simplification of various core systems to achieve improved relationships and customer service capabilities.
December 1, 2005... Banks are accelerating their push into service-oriented architecture to achieve a variety of goals. One of the latest adopters, Memphis-based regional bank First Tennessee, is using it as a customer management strategy. The $37 billion...

Thinking Inside the BOX: By embracing "virtualization," or programs that aim to reduce IT by consolidating environments into a single infrastructure, financial institutions from JPMorgan to Stonebridge Bank are dramatically reducing the burden and expense of widely-cast tech silos.
December 1, 2005... George Rapp doesn't relish the old days. It wasn't long ago that the svp of IT at Westchester, PA-based Stonebridge Bank oversaw more than 100 servers that seldom, if ever, ran at full capacity. Like many IT managers, he knew the...

Web Banking: Europe's ING Direct Bucks U.s. Tradition: ING Direct is one of the fastest-growing institutions in the U.S., with a strategy that treats banking as a price-sensitive commodity and other banks' customers as easy pickings.
December 1, 2005... Arkadi Kuhlmann has authored one of banking's most-compelling growth stories by thumbing his nose at conventional wisdom. His company, ING Direct, doesn't make acquisitions or have branches. It doesn't offer checking accounts or charge fees....

Cell Phones: A Cheaper Path To Authentication: While the reported cost of tokens has left many institutions wringing their hands, cell phones are emerging as a popular low-cost alternative for identity verification.
December 1, 2005... The recent cell-phone bandit not withstanding, there may soon be one more reason customers won't leave home without 'em: strong out-of-band authentication for Web banking. As banks scramble to create a timetable for risk assessment and...

Storage: Saving Time, Money And More Data: SCE Federal Credit Union has implemented an Internet protocol storage area network to store member information and obviate risks associated with its tech-heavy strategy.
December 1, 2005... There's almost as many ways to lose data these days as there is data to lose. Whether the disaster is natural or man-made, or if a disk is lost or stolen, the heat's on companies to make sure their customers' sensitive data doesn't float out...

Testing: Outside Opinions Help Fix Glitches: When banks look to road-test new software, many are looking beyond their vendors or in-house teams to third-party reviews.
December 1, 2005... Software glitches are a cross-industry problem costing U.S. firms $60 billion a year, and accounting for 30 percent of the costs of development. To combat this problem, many financial services firms are turning to outsourcing-and not just for...

Electronic Documents: Republic Cuts Out Reams Of Paper: The $6 billion institution is among those adopting new technology that increases automation in loan closings.
December 1, 2005... The main problem with using paper documents when closing a complex loan is that it takes a lot of time for all parties to synthesize the deal's vitally important details. Key provisos and stipulations are simply more susceptible to getting...

Fraud: New ID Solution: Minimize Contact: In a twist, Corillian's solution looks for patterns of good behavior.(Corillian Corp.'s Intelligent Authentication)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... If a branch required a frequent customer to show two forms of identification before entering, a teller's knowledge of his first name wouldn't quite enhance that personal touch. And though two-factor authentication for online banking will...

Debunking the Myths That Surround SOA.(service oriented architecture)
December 1, 2005... He wasn't talking about banking, but Isaac Asimov stated the problem well when he said: "It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without...

Banks Need to Take FFIEC Mandate to Heart.(Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council)
December 1, 2005... Over the next year banks will likely spend millions of dollars enhancing information security in response to the recent Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council guidance. The FFIEC guidelines were updated in response to increased...

Online Security Doesn't Have To Be Intrusive.
December 1, 2005... With Internet IT security now perceived as a business differentiator, and with new FFIEC risk guidelines released, many bank security practitioners and risk managers are increasing their efforts to articulate an online security strategy and...