Bank Technology News articles from May 2004

Bank Technology News archives from May 2004

Web Fees: Firm Takes Swipe At e-Tolls Again: ORCC has 50 takers. But will it matter?
May 1, 2004... The debate over whether Web-enabled financial services can draw fee income from consumers is getting an added jolt as a new pay product from Online Resources hits the market with a group of more than 50 early adopters including First Command...

Private Banking: Wells Streamlines, Updates PCS Unit: New system aids in spiking loan revenues.
May 1, 2004... When Wells Fargo decided to automate its private client services unit several years ago, it faced a problem. After a long acquisition spree, it had a good number of disparate systems with varying degrees of sophistication. Although Wells...

Business Continuity: Disaster Recovery Takes High Priority: Do preventative measures go overboard?
May 1, 2004... No one would deny that for the extremely sensitive nature of bank transactions, better safe than sorry is more than just smart policy on disaster recovery-it's the reality of today's code-red state of mind. But when is enough enough? A growing...

Risky, Rewarding And Very Politically Charged.
May 1, 2004... Overseas outsourcing, or off shoring as it is often referred to, is not a new phenomenon among U.S.-based companies, including some of the biggest financial firms. What is new is the increasing number of mid-size organizations beginning to...

....NewsMakers....NewsMakers....NewsMakers....(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Web Survey Rates Cards A survey of credit card Web site usability has found that Capital One, Amex and Discover provide the best overall on-line experience for customers. The study, conducted by U.S. market research firm Vividence,...

IT Innovation: Programmers are Aching to Get Inventive Again: Products for derivatives trading are one example.
May 1, 2004... After years of being consigned largely to the mundane task of streamlining operations to reduce expenses and control costs, programmers in the brokerage arena have about had it. Their creative juices have been stifled for too long. "If you...

Top Tech Deals.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... 1. Metavante agreed to acquire The Kirchman Corp., which will up its competitive standing by enabling Metavante to offer an in-house core-processing product. 2. Siebel Systems purchased Eontec Ltd., enabling Siebel to expand its product...

Brazil's CBLC Brings Mark-to-Future to the Masses.
May 1, 2004... CBLC has installed three new versions of Algorithmics's Algo Market since it first chose the product in 2001 to reduce market risk. But its fourth upgrade this spring to Suite 4.4, is proving to be the big enchilada, the one that will forever...

Coconut Grove's Eye in the E-Sky.
May 1, 2004... Firms are still mulling what to do about instant messaging, the real-time communications tool that's getting very little formal use at financial firms, but moderate to heavy informal use, depending on who's doing the measuring. That's causing...

Techies.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... G. Kennedy Thompson, chairman and CEO of Wachovia, was elected chairman of The Clearing House, a private-sector payments system that settles and clears more than $1.4 trillion a day through its affiliated businesses. John Peckham was...

Message Board.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... "The regulatory environment is very important. It's not just comfort; it's necessity." Virginia Garcia senior analyst, financial services strategies and IT Investments, TowerGroup on what U.S. financial firms need to focus on when hiring...

By the Numbers.(multichannel integration in banking industry)
May 1, 2004... Multichannel integration, or standardizing all delivery channels (branches, ATMs, Internet banking, etc.) to a common transaction set and service palette, is getting a lot of attention these days since it falls in line with many prevailing CRM...

Keeping CUs a Step Ahead of the Hacks.(Interview)
May 1, 2004... These days, securing information systems for a credit union can be a challenge on a global scale. Just ask Peter Simonson. As vp of Information Systems for Arizona State Savings and Credit Union, he's in charge of protecting in excess of $900...

SunGard, IPFS Launch First CD Execution Tool: Cambridge Bank tests Electronic Transaction Network.
May 1, 2004... As the demand for loans heats up through the summer, bankers around the country will face the need to increase deposits to help fund their balance sheets. Michael Carlino, president and CEO of Cambridge Bank, has high hopes for the...

Building Wealth Services So Investors Can Reap More Than Their Fair Share: ShareBuilder eases cost of entry for financial firms.
May 1, 2004... There's nothing worse than turning away a customer, but most banks have little to offer people with an extra $50 to $75 a month who want to invest in the stock market. It's a missed opportunity for both, especially since someone interested in...

Homestar's New Image Spiffs Up Loan Lifecycle: Document management software improves workflow.
May 1, 2004... Some of the biggest innovation in mortgage banking is happening in the back office, tucked out of sight from customers and investors, yet with major ramifications for how quickly and efficiently a mortgage can be approved, closed, bundled and...

Customer Acquisition: Branching Out In Big Ways: What drives bank branch performance: prime location, technology or deposit growth? All of the above.
May 1, 2004... Vernon hill, chairman and chief executive of $24 billion-asset Commerce Bancorp, has become one of the country's hottest bankers by way of the branch-and he claims to be just getting started. This year, his fast-growing Cherry Hill, NJ, banking...

Lessons from the Dark Side: Avoiding Mistakes in Overseas Outsourcing.
May 1, 2004... Most financial services firms offshore at least one function-call centers, software design, telemarketing, back-office processing, IT maintenance, accounting services-and they're discovering that the path to promised cost savings may be...

The Great Divide: Customer segmentation is a staple of CRM, and Royal Bank of Canada has embraced it in an effort to maximize profits. But Commerce Bank makes little use of it, and is still posting big numbers. Can both institutions be right?(customer relationship management)
May 1, 2004... The numbers "80" and "20" get tossed around quite a bit by bankers, a numerical representation of how the greatest percentage of profits is derived from a small percentage of customers. The idea, of course, is that if you can identify the...

Wireless Banking Initiatives Move Ahead Full Steam, But Without Blowing Their Horns: Penetration of wireless PDAs, cellphones grows.
May 1, 2004... Wireless projects abound at a number of institutions, with efforts to improve services to customers, branch and staff, though initiatives are happening without much of the fanfare reserved for other e-banking innovations. Wireless banking...

BofA's 'Customer Voice' Sounds Off in ePayments: Free and easy-to-use tool helps grab half of market.
May 1, 2004... Bank of America's execs list a number of reasons for the institution's sweeping success in the bank Internet bill-payment market, most notably their "voice of the customer" program that's an integral part of the business case built for almost...

Cash Management: Platforms Go Upstream: The right cash-management system can generate an ROI of between 30 and 50 percent. Does your platform do that?(return of investment)
May 1, 2004... Web-based cash-management systems for businesses, those banks in a box that allow companies to handle most of their own banking needs, have gone mainstream-and upscale. "As corporations evolve and more willingly embrace Internet banking,...

At Last, a Product Made by a CFO for CFOs: Bank of Idaho CFO Peter W. Minford launches Informatics database-aggregation platform with two complementary modules.
May 1, 2004... As a long-time bank cfo, peter w. Minford understands the never-ending migraine of trying to coax data from multiple databases into the multitude of regulatory and management reports required daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly. For 15...

Service-Oriented Architecture: A Platform to Do It All?(SOA-IT's new Holy Grail)
May 1, 2004... CIOs have long wished for an IT platform that does it all, with a dream portal view of a flexible, nimble infrastructure that provides seamless data sharing and integration of applications internally across the firm. Of course, it should be...

Vital Processing Brings DCC Service to U.S. Market.(dynamic currency conversion)
May 1, 2004... Vital processing services, the nation's second-largest payments processor, has inked a deal with Planet Payment to introduce dynamic currency conversion in the U.S., the first time this ubiquitous European offering will be available in the U.S....

Security Chiefs Want a Greater Say in Strategy: Former Key staffer says poor structure is dangerous.(chief information security officers)
May 1, 2004... One of the largest and most overlooked problems when fighting the universally bemoaned state of information security is that failures of corporate governance, executive command structure and poor inter-organizational communication endanger the...

Modeling Cash-Flow Assumptions.
May 1, 2004... Financially, we are living in increasingly volatile times. While banking organizations are showing record profits, industry predictions show this trend could change at any moment. A steep yield curve-especially with short-term rates near...

E-Channels are a Hit, But Paper Still Plays a Big Role.
May 1, 2004... Banking's communication is at a crossroads. Banks must reach new and existing customers through such ever-increasing contact points as e-mail, ATMs and kiosks. At the same time, they must also provide more individualized information. But...

Empowering Tellers with Better Apps.
May 1, 2004... As the new millennium was ushered in, many banking industry pundits predicted the Internet was going to replace physical buildings and leave personal contact in the cyberdust. The World Wide Web has revolutionized many industries, but it...