Bank Technology News articles from December 2008

Bank Technology News archives from December 2008

ID Fraud Resolution? Yes. But Banks Need To Prevent It.(Firing Line)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Holly Sraeel, Editorial Director CIOs only have to hear it once to know they have more than potential bad press on their hands: If one out of every five victims of identity fraud leaves his or her bank after the incident, the bank...

ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE: Learning the A-B-Cs of Strategic IT Planning; Alfabet's planningIT tool helps companies anticipate and track the effects of IT changes across the enterprise, whether planning a project, cost cutting, or making an acquisition.(Business Innovation)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Michael Sisk Strategic IT planning and management is still not widely used in banking as an enterprise architecture tool, but analysts predict that forces shaping the industry today may speed the adoption of this technology, which,...

DECISION MANAGEMENT: Taking the GuessWork out of Guesstimates; Cross-selling is king in the new banking environment. In response, Chordiant is offering a simulation tool that allows banks to see how different offers will play with customers.(Customer Tactics)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Glen Fest Offering a new teaser rate might increase customer applications for credit cards. But what impact might this offer have on other areas of the bank - savings for instance? Would the lower rate give customers added cash...

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Pushing BI Over Branch Network; In one fell swoop, NorthWest Savings takes creaky teller platform to cutting edge.(Customer Tactics)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Sausner It had been a long time since NorthWest Savings Bank had refreshed the hardware and software in the Pennsylvania-based institution's 167 branches. How long? Two years ago they were still using a DOS-based system for...

Going Off The Grid.(Cover Story)(Company overview)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Glen Fest First National Bank of Omaha turned to fuel-cell technology for energy independence to ensure the bank could continue to operate no matter what Mother Nature threw at it. Besides preparing the bank for disaster, the...

Meanwhile, On a Coast off Scotland.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Sausner The initial press accounts were exciting: "Morgan Stanley, Prince of Tides" proclaimed The New York Times, going on to detail the bank holding company's plan to build an off-the-grid data center in northern Scotland...

PAYMENTS: A Very Tenacious Idea: Online PIN Debit; EFT networks and partners may finally have both the right technology and the right business model to realize a decade's-long dream: PIN-based Web transactions.(Direct Access)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Glen Fest TM Direct was supposed to be a breakthrough for online PIN-based debit payments. The Dallas company - launched in 1999 - had an encrypted PC application that could turn consumers' PCs into secure transactional endpoints,...

CASH MANAGEMENT: Banks Roll Out Tools To Track Cash; Banks may be getting stingy when it comes to lending, but they are rolling out next generation tools to help business clients manage liquidity with improved cash flow forecasting.(Shifting Gears)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Glen Fest Even as corporate bankers pull back lines of credit during the crunch, they continue to lend clients a hand to find new avenues of liquidity. Chief among these strategies is providing client treasurers more cash flow...

Centralizing Payments With SOA.(Perspective)(service-oriented architecture)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Jim Gahagan Most banking executives realize that achieving greater payments visibility and centralizing systems will enable greater cost control, increased efficiency and higher levels of customer retention. However, most banking...

DATA PROTECTION: M&A Surge Jeopardizes Sensitive Data; Meshing two organizations often opens up security holes. Beware the soon-to-be ex-employee.(Shifting Gears)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Michael Sisk As if maintaining data security isn't tricky enough, now comes a wave of mergers that makes protecting data all the more difficult. It's hard to imagine a more likely time for security holes to open up than when two...

IT SPENDING: Booming Business In Gloomy Times; Many suffer, but those in risk management, CRM, and integration post record quarters.(Leading Off)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Sausner The biggest financial technology players - Fiserv, TSYS, Metavante, NCR and Diebold - are certainly feeling the industry's pain, at least when it comes to their stock prices. But the news for IT vendors is not...

IT SPENDING OUTLOOK: IT Spend Will Be Slow and Spotty in 'O9; Bright spots include treasury services, deposit gathering, delivery channels and risk management. But forget about consumer finance.(Leading Off)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Michael Sisk It would not seem to bode well for IT spending in 2009 that State Street, one of the biggest purchasers with a $1.3 billion budget, announced last month it will "materially" limit the budget through cost cuts. But, as...

ATMs: Taking on Western Union; Cardless ATM transactions could open remittance market to all banks.(Leading Off)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Sausner There's little argument that banks are failing miserably at making customers of the more than 28 million Americans classified as unbanked. This failure means banks lose not only potential deposits, they also lose...

NEWSMAKERS.(Leading Off)
December 1, 2008... U.S. Bank And Visa Pilot Micro Tag What better time to test alternative payment devices than during the holiday season? Visa is piloting its smallest alternative electronic payment device available, the Visa Micro Tag, with U.S. Bancorp....

MORTGAGES: Modifying Home Loans Depends On Past Tech Investments; JPMorgan Chase may be ahead of the game with its digital archive, but many banks must play catch up.(Leading Off)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Sausner The nation's largest banks are offering sweeping modifications on millions of mortgages. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citi alone have promised to restructure 1.3 million more loans. But how efficiently...

THE STATE OF INNOVATION: The Future, One Innovative Step at a Time; At BTN's 7th annual feting of The Innovators, BNY Mellon's Kurt Woetzel and Citi's Marty Lippert say creativity, even for incremental gains, is absolutely crucial.(Plugged In)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Sausner On November 17, Citigroup announced 52,000 layoffs; by the end of the week, its stock had plunged 60 percent. The industry's troubles are widespread: Twenty-two banks have failed so far this year, the most recent of...

TECHIES.(Plugged In)
December 1, 2008... Open Solutions Inc. added Stephen J. Cameron as president, reporting to CEO Louis Hernandez Jr. Mobile payments firm Obopay appointed Spencer Fong as vp, engineering. He recently served in the same role at Intuit's Digital Insight *...

Message Board.(Plugged In)(Brief article)
December 1, 2008... "If it's not real time, I don't want to hear about it." -Barbara Perino, svp of operations and technology at Rhode Island-based Washington Trust, on her instructions to vendors. "In a merger environment, you might only have to annoy...

CUSTOMER PRIVACY: Community Banks Pony Up To Protect Customer Data; A new report by the ICBA shows that the safety of customer information is a top priority for community bankers and they plan to increase spending significantly in 2009.(By the Numbers)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Anthony Malakian Just like their big-bank brethren, keeping customers' personal information safe is the top concern for most community bankers, according to a survey conducted by the Independent Community Bankers of America. Of...

Harnessing the Power Of the Crowd; American Express asks for feedback on its online banner ads. FNBO Direct and others asked users to submit their own product videos online. How far can crowdsourcing go?(Interview)
December 1, 2008... Byline: Anthony Malakian Jeff Howe, a contributor to Wired, coined the term "crowdsourcing" in June 2006. His book, Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business, looks at the evolution of crowdsourcing and...