Bank Technology News articles from July 2003

Bank Technology News archives from July 2003

SPEECH RECOGNITION: Technology Moving Full Steam Ahead.
July 1, 2003... Banks can save $1 million on average the first year though speech recognition software is revolutionizing the banking industry, leaving an indelible mark on the financial services landscape, players are united in only one prediction: You ain't...

CARD THEFT: Danger Lurks Deep Within: Firms use new technology to battle inside jobs.(Industry Overview)
July 1, 2003... Technology has made banks and other financial firms more vulnerable to security breaches, but many are using technology as a weapon to fight back. While vandals who electronically infiltrate corporate infrastructure attract the spotlight, a...

TARGETED MARKETING: Redrawing Clients' Financial Picture.(with MoneyFind)
July 1, 2003... MoneyFind helps banks retain clients move over, client retention software. There's a new player in town this month: MoneyFind's Enterprise Liability Monitoring and Management System-and it's armed with more tools than Home Improvement's Tim...

What's in a Finance Acronym? Surprise... Very Little.: The drumbeat for CRM has grown so loud that the industry became swept up in a technology spending spree.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... In an industry confronted by increasing regulation and stiff competition, players in financial services have been bombarded by a series of buzzwords, catch phrases and acronyms. After years of careful observation, one might argue the money's in...

ID VERIFICATION: Biometric IDs Come of Age: TouchCredit launches suite that combats on-line fraud.(BioShop)
July 1, 2003... Security-conscious banks can now go beyond passwords, PINs and signatures to biometric keystroke-rhythm identification or voice verification with BioShop, which officials claim is 100 percent accurate. And banks can combat Web fraud with the...

....NewsMakers....NewsMakers....NewsMakers..........(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Bug Off: Tracking Bugbear.B Cyber cops are chasing a new virus, Bugbear.B., a worm threatening banks around the world, which first popped up June 5. The virus is believed to be a variant of the Bugbear. An e-mail worm-also known as...

CONSOLIDATION: Web Techies Brace For M&A Storm: S1 and its competitors face the threat of acquisition.
July 1, 2003... Taking a $45 million hit to revenue in the first quarter thanks to Zurich Financial Services pulling out of on-line banking and canceling its contract was not how S1 Corp. was hoping to start 2003. "The size of the contract was significant and...

Japan Banks' Tech Spending to Top $11.8 Billion.(Industry Overview)
July 1, 2003... Could japan's banks be in any worse shape? The banking system of this nation of 127 million accounts for a staggering 18 percent of global banking assets. Yet for two decades, it has been struggling with intense internal and foreign...

The Archives Have A Big Hole in Them.
July 1, 2003... Most companies think archiving e-mail is important, but that's all they're doing-thinking. Market researchers at The Radicati Group say a majority of firms, including those in financial services, recognize the importance of adopting e-mail...

TECHIES.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... AXA UK has appointed Francois-Xavier Quilici as group CIO, a newly created position. Michael Wilson becomes CIO at First NLC Financial Services, a mortgage lender in Deerfield Beach, FL. He previously was with Option One Mortgage in...

Message Board.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... "Today, it's still 'What's the ROI?' Once you can show compelling ROI, it's worth it." Ken Jackowitz, svp and chief customer officer at NetByTel on whether banks can justify the expense of installing speech-recognition software. "I...

By the Numbers.
July 1, 2003... The rise of mobile and data prepaid services, so popular in much of Europe and parts of Asia, is now being noticed by U.S. financial services firms, which expect that trend to sweep across North and South America this year. Western Hemisphere...

Bank Grunts are on Front Lines of ID Theft.
July 1, 2003... Customer service reps and branch employees are near the bottom of the totem poll, but are often among the most important parts of the staff when it comes to a bank's image and public goodwill. One can add exposure to identity theft to that list...

Discover and Metavante Deliver Gift for Consumers.
July 1, 2003... Prepaid cards are becoming a major part of the plastic landscape, and for Discover, they're front and center of a strategy to expand their world of payment options. That makes its recent gift card partnership with Metavante just a start, in...

EZier Cash-Free Transactions: Speeding Up RFID.(Industry Overview)
July 1, 2003... Any driver who has been toll-boothed to death remembers the advent of the speed pass, which allowed drivers to sail through toll-booth lines. For many, their commute became-literally-a breeze. Now banks are experimenting with ways to use...

Cap Gemini Helps Captives Toe the Line on IT Costs.
July 1, 2003... Cap gemini ernst & young is targeting the captive auto-finance market with a product designed to help it contain technology costs. The captive auto loan industry has posed a growing threat to financial institutions over the past few years,...

Lehman Wants to Pump Up the Trading Volume.
July 1, 2003... Lehman brothers is trying out new technology from Kx Systems that promises greater trading efficiencies and faster analysis. The application, called kdb-plus, is the latest version of Kx's flagship kdb database. While Lehman has been a...

FirstFed, Eastern Bank Do Even More with Less: Both learned to handle growth without cutting service.
July 1, 2003... Gary Vierra was looking at a mountain to climb, one that had his bank-FIRSTFED-getting 100 percent larger from an acquisition while his technology department faced a mandate to save 25 percent in operating costs inside of six months. And all of...

Reinvigorating Branches By Offering More Options: BofA test project shows benefits include higher profits.
July 1, 2003... Throughout the 1990s, efficiency and cost-cutting were central to retail strategies. Banks sought to reduce transaction cycle times to increase branch efficiency. Acquisitions and mergers created larger banks with higher transaction volumes...

Blockbuster or Bomb?: Today's Most Talked About Technology.
July 1, 2003... Look behind most technology efforts these days and you'll find a heap of dashed expectations. Innovation isn't without its causes-or its casualties. Yet amidst consolidation, tougher demands on the business of finance and a drag on tech...

Harborstone Credit Union Woos Business Owners.
July 1, 2003... In a bid to expand from its traditional retail focus and appeal to small businesses, Tacoma, WA-based Harborstone Credit Union has chosen Aurum Technology to provide a business banking software to offer services such as sweep accounts, deposit...

On-line Brokers Hang On, Despite Dwindling Trades.(Industry Overview)
July 1, 2003... Trading is still down across the on-line brokerage industry. Although competition is fierce and remains focused on the best and cheapest trade execution, the industry is gelling into distinct categories with leaders emerging in each. ...

Fiserv Has Plans to Aggregate Insurance Carriers.
July 1, 2003... Fiserv is four months into the rollout of its new account aggregation product, and has scored some wins among retail banks-and it's now plotting to move into the insurance arena. "It gives the insurance carrier the ability to look and see what...

DATA MANAGEMENT: Sun Life Gets Data Flowing.
July 1, 2003... Most of the attention paid to merger conversions has to do with topics like brand, signage, systems, redundancies and synergies. There's no arguing over the importance of those issues, but some of the most vital work that gets done when two...

Inter-Business Vault Pledges to Lock Up Bank Data.
July 1, 2003... Fear of cyberhackers keep Cyber-Ark Senior Director Richard April up at night so his financial services clients don't develop insomnia themselves. But April is sleeping more solidly these days since spring, when his firm launched the second...

The Case for Core Systems Replacement.
July 1, 2003... One of the single largest problems financial institutions face today is legacy systems built for a paper-based world. While the paper is going, many of those legacy systems are still in place. In the short term, it seems a whole lot easier and...

Finding Yourself in a Hole? Stop Digging.: How to manage a core systems upgrade.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... For those firms holding together outdated systems and finding themselves in a hole, there's only one thing to do: stop digging.Climb out by building a business case for core systems technology that will help your company better compete. Is...

Security Risks Loom Even Larger.
July 1, 2003... Any bank IT administrator who has paid much attention to on-line security has noticed the exponential growth in their number and the increasing complexity of blended threats. Powerful and infamous attacks such as Klez, CodeRed and Slammer have...

Fighting Fraud Gets Interactive.
July 1, 2003... Banks and other credit card issuers have an urgent need to detect and stop more credit card fraud earlier in the cycle and at lower costs. Fraud-prevention analysts usually review and contact only customers in the highest-risk fraud score...

'Personal' Banking Back At PNC.
July 1, 2003... This has been a heady time for banking, filled with both great promise and great danger. No other industry has faced such complex changes in its traditional business model in such a short time. It started with sweeping deregulation, followed by...

Genesis Revealed.
July 1, 2003... Long before PNC began shopping for new hardware and software, it first took the time to sit down with management and employees to define the work environment and customer experience they hoped to create. When completed, Genesis resulted in a...

Customer Experience.
July 1, 2003... As a PNC customer, first I receive service that is efficient, enjoyable and right the first time, delivered through the channel of my choice. I benefit from superior financial product and service recommendations. The...

How E-Billing Can Fulfill Its Potential.(electronic bill payment and presentment (EBPP))
July 1, 2003... Since the arrival of on-line financial services, billers and financial institutions have awaited the adoption breakthrough predicted by many industry analysts. The promise of electronic bill payment and presentment (EBPP), using technology to...