Bank Technology News articles from July 2004

Bank Technology News archives from July 2004

Loyalty Cards: Spend And They Shall Receive: Summit collecting $1.5 million for nonprofits.
July 1, 2004... Summit Bank CEO Terrance M. Davis knows being socially responsible can pay off big in customer loyalty, but he never realized how big. In 2003 the $230-million-asset bank in Sonoma County, CA, faced a migraine familiar to other community banks...

Check 21: Perks Beyond Compliance Will Cost $$$: Huntington finds there's more than meets the eye.
July 1, 2004... Check 21's long-term impact beyond initial compliance may include boosting adoption of a number of innovations, such as transferring check images over the Internet. But with just a couple of months remaining until the bill goes into effect on...

Enterprise Information Integration: Pacific Bancorp Pacifies Its Data: Deployment will make information transparent.
July 1, 2004... The means for banks to meld data sources through middleware abound, but for Pacific Bancorp it's all about offering customers access to products, channels and personalized information without the inconsistency of silos, all in real-time. ...

By The Numbers: Offshoring wave becomes tsunami.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... TowerGroup says external IT spending will rise to 60% by 2006, compared to 50% in 1996. The culprit: offshoring. Copyright 2004 Thomson Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. http://www.thomsonmedia.com http://www.banktechnews.com

Edit Index.(Illustration)
July 1, 2004... A ABN Amro 10 AIC Ltd. 41 American Express 20 Arizona State Savings & CU 29 AT&T 29 Automated Financial Systems 20 Avaki 1 Avaya Inc. 29 B Banamex 10 ...

Great Minds Think Alike, Or Do They? We Intend to Find Out.
July 1, 2004... In any industry, the individuals considered leading practitioners in their field-and those who follow them-like to swap notes and, when appropriate, war stories. Competition aside, financial players must excel in the fundamentals while...

ATM Security: 3des Creates New Bedfellows: I-S-Cubed partners with Mosaic and Diebold to provide remote-encryption key management.(I-S-Cubed )
July 1, 2004... The strict 3DES world of uber-electronic security at remote touchpoints has led a trio of companies who play in the ATM technology and distribution game-Diebold, I-S-Cubed and Mosaic-to become partners in cash-dispenser crime fighting. The...

News Makers.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Phishing Expedition Sails A new group has formed to fight phishing and spoofing scams, growing problems that Gartner says has hit 57 million U.S. Internet users and tricked 1.7 million into divulging personal financial data. Trusted...

Top Tech Deals.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Numberone Swiftview, a provider of on-line document software, entered into strategic partnerships with GHR Systems, Delphi Information Sciences, MortgageFlex and Dynatek to expands its LOS business. Numbertwo Clear2Pay acquired...

Touch Screens: A Political Hot Button Gets Popular with Consumers: Touch-screen self service is gaining acceptance in banking, but its use for voting is under fire in California.(Elo TouchSystems indicates consumer preferences towards ATM with touch screens)
July 1, 2004... New research from Elo TouchSystems indicates consumers, particularly young adults, are growing more comfortable with using touch-screen self service for financial transactions. Elo TouchSystems develops and sells touch-screen technology, which...

Techies.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Jim Krause was named CIO at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, where he will head the newly created technology and enterprise computing division. Barclays Capital expanded its U.S. technology team with the following new hires and internal...

Message Board.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... "The few that aren't compliant stand out." Joerg Ferchau, CEO of I-S-Cubed, on the influence of of MasterCard and Visa in setting security standards for payments. "Many customers had heard about it, but didn't know how it impacted...

Offshoring: Wave of Offshoring Turning Into a Tsunami for Banks: IT spending in FI outsourcing could hit 60 percent by 2006, up from 50 percent in 1996.
July 1, 2004... There's no doubt about it: Financial services won't be turning back the tide on overseas outsourcing of back-, middle- and front-office functions anytime soon, despite the numerous legislative attempts to stem it. Indeed, offshore...

To Spur Adoption, Banks Could Give EBP&P Lessons: Banks are fostering awareness of on-line bill payment. But they need to show people how it actually works.
July 1, 2004... MasterCard RPPS's Cathleen Conforti says consumers need a good lesson on e-payments from their institutions, and if banks provide it, robust adoption will follow. And offering it for free is also a good idea. The svp of MasterCard...

Wealth Management: First Republic Taps Afs For Hnw Bonds: The private bank, whose spate of HNW-originated asset-backed securities has grown by one-fifth over the last year, has chosen two AFS modules to help handle the booming business.(Automated Financial Systems)
July 1, 2004... First Republic Bank hopes to turbocharge its asset-backed securities business, which has been exploding as high-net-worth (HNW) clients seek to capitalize on low mortgage rates to restructure their debt. Like institutional investors,...

Marketing: Can Scores Aid In TArgeting clients?: New scoring uses non-credit data and unique modeling aimed at improving the success of customer-acquisition campaigns for credit card, retail and continuity markets. But does it work?
July 1, 2004... Every marketer has the same gripe about the quality of names that dominate his database: How can he increase the odds that every single prospect is a qualified one who will accept his offer? Now Fair Isaac Corp., a provider of analytics and...

Small Business: Hibernia Tackles channel Navigation: Entrepreneurs have different needs than consumers, so an institution's alternative-channel strategy has to adjust.
July 1, 2004... One of the staples of channel management in financial services is migration, or the strategy of nudging consumers to less costly electronic transaction modes such as the Internet, where self-service is high and personal interaction is low. But...

Event Notification: Charter One Keeps its consumers Alert: The bank, which is in the midst of being acquired by Royal Bank of Scotland, is maintaining its product-rollout schedule. The latest one takes an active approach to customer notification.(Planning of merger between Charter One and Royal Bank of Scotland)
July 1, 2004... While waiting for its acquisition by Royal Bank of Scotland to become official, Charter One remains active on the product-rollout front, deploying proactive and economical ways to connect with its base of consumers. The $41 billion-asset...

Kick That Tin Can: Banks Adopt VoIP: Does saving more than $5 million a year sound like a good idea? Just ask SouthTrust how.
July 1, 2004... Bank CIOs convinced that "huge savings" and "improved operational efficiencies" were terms that wouldn't be found in the same sentence have learned to rethink their IT strategy, thanks to the advent of voice-over Internet protocol. Banks have...

Uturists.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... While investors and analysts have the luxury of being hyper-focused on the next quarter's results, bank executives know that near-term results must be balanced with long-term strategic positioning. Like the best chess players, they must think...

Harry Dent Says Prepare for Boomers' Aging.
July 1, 2004... For Harry Dent, the forces gathering to alter the banking industry can mostly be traced to the life cycle of the Baby Boomers. Dent, an investment strategist and author, whose most recent book is "The Roaring 2000s," is unabashedly bullish and...

Bernard Lietaer Urges the Growth of New Currency.
July 1, 2004... In the view of Bernard Lietaer, the world's current monetary systems might not be utterly obsolete, but they are insufficient to cope with the way the world needs to conduct business. Indeed, 87 countries have experienced major currency crashes...

Dr. James Bellini: Compliance Begets More Customers.
July 1, 2004... Successful banks of the future will marry, through technology, two of the most vexing and expensive challenges of today: regulatory compliance and customer relationship management. So says Dr. James Bellini, a member of the global future forum,...

Dr. James Canton Predicts the Rise of the Affluent Hispanic Middle Class.
July 1, 2004... Demographics, technology, hyper-competition and emerging products are the four broad forces that will shape financial services in the years to come, according to Dr. James Canton, CEO of the Institute for Global Futures, a San Francisco-based...

David Zach Warns of Fickle Fads and Stresses a Focus On Trends.
July 1, 2004... We live in an age where consumers are bombarded with so many choices and opportunities that one of the greatest tests of leadership in the banking industry will be discerning among fads, trends and banking principles, says David Zach, the...

Security: A Battle's Breaking Out Over Phishing Prevention: Citi, Discover and MBNA test substitute numbers for on-line shopping, which is at odds with measures from Visa and MasterCard.
July 1, 2004... As phishing and spoofing scams continue to rise on the Web, and identity theft becomes a primary concern for financial services institutions, some credit card issuers have begun experimenting with new card technology to combat the problem. ...

Web-based Financial Management: Rait And Webseries Focus On Controls: The $500 million REIT only has 30 employees, which makes the Web a useful tool to keep tabs on rent and other financial transactions at its investment properties.
July 1, 2004... Real estate investment trusts have an array of new regulations that place their cash management under the microscope, and at least one of them, RAIT Investment Trust, has decided that providing Web access to its financial partners and...

Troubleshooting: Keycorp's Blueprint For Problem Solving: At least a few glitches are inevitable in running a bank, so Cleveland-based KeyCorp says notifying staff of policy and procedure on repairs is part of organizational discipline.
July 1, 2004... Optimizing applications and IT resources starts with policy, but it ends with people. Whether managing upgrades of devices, mitigating critical snafus and capacity issues, or performing everyday workarounds, ensuring peak performance of IT...

Remote Access: IBC's Open for Check Processing All Day Long: Texas community bank uses imaging at the teller window to quicken the workflow and expand beyond limited hours.(International Bank of Commerce)
July 1, 2004... International Bank of Commerce traditionally has been able to process checks for only a few hours each day, not nearly enough time given its planed expansion. It hopes providing automated access to check processing at the teller station will...

Branch Automation: Reinventing NCBJ, With Technology Help: National Commercial Bank of Jamaica says it increased its ROI by a factor of 10, thanks to a $50 million rejuvenation of its 52-branch operation. That's only part of the story.(National Commercial Bank of Jamaica )
July 1, 2004... When Canadian mutual fund AIC Ltd. acquired a 75 percent interest in the National Commercial Bank of Jamaica in March 2002, officials realized they had inherited an inefficient, antiquated operation lethargically competing with its archrival,...

Don't Let Your Institution Become The Next Victim of ID Theft.
July 1, 2004... Identity theft is a threat at all stages of the business cycle, from the CEO to the customer. For financial services institutions in particular, an identity theft attack can be catastrophic for all those involved. However, with a proper plan in...