Bank Technology News articles from June 2007

Bank Technology News archives from June 2007

IT Consulting: Capgemini Banking on Renewed Cred: Its comeback strategy relies on building bank clients.
June 1, 2007... It's a pat on the back that carries a little sting for Lanny Cohen. "That word-relevance-always gets me," says the new chief executive for Capgemini North America. "When you look at the work we are doing in financial services, the kind of...

Customer Feedback: In-Store E-Surveys: Some banks are finding them more effective than mystery shoppers.
June 1, 2007... Mystery shopping helps financial institutions measure teller product awareness and service acumen, but one Tallahassee, FL-based regional bank found it mainly exposed the limits of using faux customers. With scripted questions and...

Mobile Banking: Get Ready for the New Zealand Invasion: Kiwibank's platform is on its way to the U.S.
June 1, 2007... Armed with a suitcase full of hypotheticals on how instant, remote access to banking accounts from mobile devices can change financial lives, technology salespeople are planning to pitch to American banks and consumers a mode of wireless remote...

Edit Index.
June 1, 2007... A-B Accenture 14, 30 AIG 16 Alliance Data Systems 14 Assn of Financial Professionals 12 Bank of America 20, 29, 34, 35 Bear Stearns 12 BearingPoint 14 Bioscript 18 BISYS 12, 14 BITS 28...

The Six Regulatory Areas That Are Altering Bank Life.
June 1, 2007... Regulation in banking is like death and taxes: all three are certainties. For bankers who choose to view regulation as it is intended-as a safeguard, rather than an albatross-getting out in front of compliance issues can prove essential in...

M&A: Citi Targets Hedge Fund Business: The purchase of BISYS positions the bank to offer more services in North America.(Citigroup Inc. (New York, New York))
June 1, 2007... Citi announced in May a $1.45 billion deal to purchase outsourcing provider BISYS in a transaction designed to boost the bank's administration and distribution services capabilities for the rapidly growing hedge fund, mutual fund and private...

News Makers.
June 1, 2007... CHECK FRAUD'S UP; CARD FRAUD'S LOW The 2007 payments fraud survey from the Association for Financial Professionals reports that more organizations (72 percent) reported check fraud activity than its previous survey (68 percent), despite...

Customization: Tailoring IT At Small Banks is a Challenge: Community banks compete mostly on service, not IT. But some flexibility would be nice.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Even though community banks compete mostly on service, many bankers still want the ability to adapt IT systems to gain a strategic edge. The question for banks with these aspirations-and whose IT departments are usually small and stretched...

Top Tech Deals.(Citigroup Inc. (New York, New York) acquired BISYS Group Inc.)(Cerner Corp. contracts with First Data Corp. and UMB Financial Corp. to unveil identification card)(The Blackstone Group acquired Alliance Data Systems )(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Number One Citi signed an agreement to acquire back-office service provider BISYS Group for $1.45 billion to step up the bank's hedge fund and mutual fund services and private equity administration. Citi will retain the investment services...

Cyber Security: Data Breach Insurance Gains in Popularity: As data breaches become more frequent, insurance policies offer a range of protections. But should money spent on premiums be spent on shoring up security instead?
June 1, 2007... What do you think it would cost your institution if a laptop with 10,000 customer records went missing? ChoicePoint was said to put the price tag at $100 per record. Ponemon Institute estimates $182 per record. Forrester Research gives a range...

Ethics: You Have to Be Good. Everybody's Watching.: IT professionals have long relied on self-policing when it comes to ethical behavior. And that's a good thing, since bad behavior reflects poorly on everyone.(RSA Conference)
June 1, 2007... Peer pressure gets a bad rap; it is, in fact, a force for good. So say some of the leading thinkers on financial IT ethics, who met in February at the RSA Conference in San Francisco to discuss the latest on ethics in the workplace. ...

Techies.(Crowe Chizek appointed Alan Abel)(BT Global Financial Services promoted Mark Akass)(Mortgage Cadence Inc. appointed Gabe Minton)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Alan Abel joined Crowe Chizek to lead its anti-money laundering consulting services. * Mark Akass was promoted to CTO of BT Global Financial Services. In this role, he will direct the development of technology-based services across the BT...

Consumer Privacy: Top Banks Must Guard Against Breach of Faith: The good news for banks, according to a Ponemon Institute study, is that most customers trust them with their personal data. The bad news is that one misstep will cost them dearly.(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Retail banks face big privacy trust challenges with consumers who must share personal information and conduct financial transactions with them on a daily basis. Fortunately for banks, they are mostly up to the challenge, according to the...

DeutscheBank Will Pitch High-Touch CRM to Others: Not only is the institution's global banking unit happy with its high-touch CRM, it's also found a way to lower costs by "nearshoring" the CRM operation.(customer relationship management software)(Interview)
June 1, 2007... CRM demands for outfits such as investment banks are more complicated than for retail banks, and DeutscheBank believes it's found a winning solution from Luxoft, a Ukrainian/Russian firm whose location keeps down costs; the bank is so enthused...

Healthcare: Fifth Third Wants a Healthy Future: Banks are well positioned to be the nexus between payers, providers and patients. But to automate medical payment documents banks must cope with a new level of complexity.(Fifth Third Bank (Cincinnati, Ohio)'s services to health care industry)
June 1, 2007... If the idea of applying the principles behind check imaging and e-payments to the healthcare receivables business seems like it should be a no brainer for banks, then get ready for a CAT scan. "Unlike the business to business space,...

Identity Fraud: Banks Offer ID Theft Resolution Services: A Tennessee bank gets surprising demand for an ID theft resolution service it is private labeling from Worldwide Assistance. Customers are even willing to pay for the luxury.(First Citizens National Bank)
June 1, 2007... A sleepy Tennessee community, best known as Patsy Cline's last stop on her ill-fated 1963 flight, wouldn't seem a likely hive of identity theft activity. But in January, First Citizens National Bank in Dyersburg had its second major...

The Rise of Business Intel 2.0: Forget traditional customer relationship measurements. Business intelligence technology-once reserved for derivatives geeks-relies on analytics and economic modeling to determine a customer's value and risk potential to an institution during the course of his life.
June 1, 2007... Forget traditional customer relationship measurements. Business intelligence technology-once reserved for derivatives geeks-relies on analytics and economic modeling to determine a customer's value and risk potential to an institution during...

The Future of Spreadsheets in BI? Excel-Lent.(business intelligence. Microsoft Excel )
June 1, 2007... When business intelligence platforms reach full maturity, the predictions go, that'll be the end of desktop spreadsheet analytics in enterprises. Turns out, though, there's probably more corporate urgency in finding low-gravity ink pens...

Privacy: Keeping Boardroom Info Under Wraps: New Internet portal products are designed to wean corporate boards off of paper communication and to prevent a company's most sensitive information from leaking out.
June 1, 2007... It's tough to imagine a situation as unseemly as HP's boardroom scandal coming from a major financial institution, but Citigroup's Todd Thomson-Maria Bartiromo debacle certainly had its share of salacious insider details that CEO Charles Prince...

Security: When Lock Downs Lock Out The Blind: Banks and vendors are working to make online tools secure and usable for the visually impaired.
June 1, 2007... The Federal Financial Institution Examinations Council mandated that banks lock down their online banking applications as of January 1 of this year. Most complied, and that has kept attorney Daniel Goldstein, who represents the National...

Nanotech: Futuristic Keypad Piques Interest: It won't be used for ATMs anytime soon, but recent research in nanotechnology shows that bank security may someday be extended to the molecular level.
June 1, 2007... Forty years ago, a helpful mentor-like acquaintance uttered the word "Plastics" to Ben Braddock, better known as The Graduate, in an attempt to guide Ben along the path of sure success. Today, there's plenty of sentiment that word would be...

Job Scheduling: Is That Job Done Yet? The Software Knows.: Union Bank of CA deploys an automated job scheduling solution.(ActiveBatch software)
June 1, 2007... Union Bank of California recently deployed a cross-platform job scheduling and management software product that centralizes job management, designs and integrates batch systems and offers a single point of scheduling. The bank's hope is to...

FIs Explore Co-Sourcing IT Management.(financial institutions)
June 1, 2007... In the race for better customer service, shorter cycle times, higher operating efficiency and growth, banks and financial services firms continue to expose their business services to customers, partners and third parties via new technologies....

Banks Need A Disclosure "Action Plan".(Society for WorldWide Interbank Financial Telecommunication)
June 1, 2007... Companies from a range of industries have been criticized for sharing customer information in response to governmental demands, in most cases without proving prior notice to the customers whose information is being shared. One of the most...