Bank Technology News articles from May 2005

Bank Technology News archives from May 2005

Privatizing Social Security: Dubya Offers a Boom-and a Huge IT Bill: Servicing private accounts could cost billions.
May 1, 2005... Conversations about Social Security privatization usually revolve around the boon it would provide to the financial services companies that would have the opportunity to invest the public's money. But banks and brokerages, as well as the...

B2B payments: Auto Finance Gets Past 'Bureaucracy': PNC rolls out electronic claims software.
May 1, 2005... Consumers have been warming to electronic payment systems for years, partly in an attempt to save time and reduce clutter. But business-to-business transactions-with their elaborate methods of procurement-have actually lagged behind when it...

Cross Border: Remittance Heats Up: New software offers quick confirmations.( Paso Government Employees Credit Union)
May 1, 2005... Even in a border town like El Paso, TX, gaining share of the remittance service market isn't a top priority, says credit union executive Harriet May. "It's not the cherry on top of the sundae to bring [customers] in," admits the CEO of El Paso...

Edit Index.(Illustration)
May 1, 2005... A American Bankers Association 14 American Express 38 AmNet 46 ANB Bank 20 Automated Clearing House 48 B, C ...

Editor's Note.(Correction Notice)
May 1, 2005... In "An Early Diagnosis of Married Platforms" (April 2005), BTN incorrectly spelled the surname of HyPerformix CEO Noel Barnard. BTN regrets the error. In "Cross Selling: Toppling Silos Key to Wells' Web Success" (April 2005), the...

Nonbank Payments: Are Banks Green? Yes And No.
May 1, 2005... A recent conversation with a bank CIO sums up the banking industry's situation pretty succinctly: "If you take cash and payments out of the equation, who needs banks?" That's the question weighing heavily on many bankers' minds. While the...

Heeling And Dealing: Sungard Aims To Recast Its Services Business: The largest private tech buyout comes as the firm shifts its strategy amid a changing outsourcing environment.
May 1, 2005... The $11.3 billion deal to take SunGard private is causing a lot of buzz in the financial services industry, particularly in light of the recent trend away from wide-ranging IT outsourcing agreements. Most industry reactions have focused on...

News Makers.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Paycom-MC suit tossed, Net policies upheld A federal judge threw out a lawsuit against MasterCard by adult Web site billing firm Paycom, which alleged antitrust and fraud violations over MC's charge policies for Net merchants. When it filed...

Top Tech Deals.(Nexstar)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Number One Nasdaq confirmed its purchase of Instinet for $934.5 million, which had been rumored for weeks. The exchange also plans to sell Instinet's Institutional Broker division to Silver Lake Equity Partners, a private equity group. ...

New Check Technology: Image Replacements Are Starting To Fall Into Favor: Some are asking if stopgap check replacement technology should now be viewed as a permanent answer. It appeals to banks but could put a crimp in electronic exchanges.
May 1, 2005... Image-replacement document technology is supposed to be a stopgap for Check 21 compliance in lieu of an industry-wide image exchange environment. But some bankers and industry watchers are starting to ask the question: why should IRDs only be...

Knowing Customers: Banks Battle The Image Of Social Insecurity: Unisys says nearly half of banks use Social Security numbers, an easily nabbed item, as authentication.
May 1, 2005... While politicians, pundits and ordinary citizens debate the virtue of privatizing Social Security, it's the apparent lack of privacy of Social Security numbers that's sounding an alarm in some corners. Market research from Unisys says...

Techies.(Appointments)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... RiskMetrics Group appointed Arthur Levitt, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to its board of directors. * Jill Smith joined Gomez Inc., an Internet performance management company, as CEO. * Biometrics company Pay By...

Message Board.
May 1, 2005... "It's better than e-mail. It feels better." Saied Seghatoleslami, vp of Avaya, on the immediacy of a VOIP voicemail as opposed to e-mail. "All of the documents could be housed in that salt mine." Richard Beidl, mortgage consultant,...

ID Theft: Who's The Crime's Typical Victim? You'd Be Surprised.: Some 60 percent of survey respondents say they fear the crime, and six percent switched banks to avoid it.
May 1, 2005... Fears about ID theft are escalating, according to new research by Financial Insights, but not all consumers worry about the crime equally. And the level of fear depends on the respondent's age. For example, 60 percent of respondents say...

If It's New, ANB Financial's Interested in Adoption: Located in the land of Wal-Mart, ANB finds itself with a lot of competitors. It's tried to stay ahead by embracing innovation early, often developing the technology itself.(VeriSource)(Interview)
May 1, 2005... From its perch across the way from Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters in Arkansas, ANB Financial's plan to ward off its numerous competitors has been like a play on old school voting in Chicago-adopt early and adopt often. Since its...

Mortgage: Republic Hits Vegas With Less Paper: The lender's using imaging for customer delivery and secondary market sales in the fast growing Vegas market, making it one of many lenders using e-capture to shave paper and storage costs.(OnBase software from OSAM)
May 1, 2005... Las Vegas' real estate environment is much like the city itself- rapidly expanding, changing by the day and every bit the crapshoot. In an attempt to tame this volatile market-and score points with its tech-hungry portfolio investors, Republic...

Checking: Teller-point Exchange Gets A Test In Ohio: Huntington's an early adopter of a product that could vastly reduce paper By Shane Kite.
May 1, 2005... The devices aren't large, only about as big as a cigar box. But for firms like Huntington Bank, these tiny cameras can be a key to digitizing checks right at the point of presentment. The bank plans to test these digital exchanges in a...

Social Networking: M&A Matchmaker Gets Automated Help: Mid-market investment banking firm Edgeview Partners ramps up its IT bench to help sellers and buyers find each other in an increasingly busy corporate dealmaking marketplace.
May 1, 2005... Last year Edgeview Partners Inc., an investment-banking firm serving middle-market clients, did 18 deals. For each one, it contacted as few as five potential buyers and as many as 100 as it sought to help its clients sell all or parts of their...

Education: Wachovia Picks A Consumer Primer For Its Overhaul: Users can learn about the array of new billpay platform and home page redesign, with the goal of easier navigation and adoption.
May 1, 2005... A Web site isn't much good if people don't know how to use it, and even less effective when a long-standing look and feel changes, leaving customers confused about a redesign that may have more function, but is more difficult to navigate at the...

Customer Service: For Bank 10, The First Number's Right: Missouri-based community bank is using IP telephony to route customer service calls, eliminating the need for customers to call a second number if they initially call the wrong location.
May 1, 2005... A community bank in Missouri hopes it's got one of the more annoying customer service problems licked. The bank is deploying IP telephony to eliminate the need for customers to hang up and dial another number at the bank if their initial...

Will The Sun Rise Tomorrow?: It Industry's Maverick Facing Tough Obstacles In Winning Back Customers.
May 1, 2005... Sun Microsystems has gained a reputation through the years as the feisty underdog, the scrapping outfit with the different idea good enough to battle the dominance of Microsoft on the enterprise desktop and that of IBM in the data center. ...

Sunnier Days.(Sun microsystems Inc.)
May 1, 2005... Sun's history, and that of Scott McNealy, is one that mirrors the "new economy's" rise and fall. For now. 1982: Small Businessmen Incorporated in February 1982, with four employees. 1984: Crimson Chief NFS technology...

Use It Or Lose It: Customers want payment options; who provides them is irrelevant. If banks don't want to relinquish more ground to nonbanks, then they need to get creative-soon. A report from the frontlines in the battle over payments.
May 1, 2005... Oh, for the good old days, when consumers were content to pay their grocery bill with cash, or a check, or a credit card. What a twentieth century mentality that was. Today the payments industry is going through one of its most dynamics...

Remote Check Deposit: Wells Captures A New Checking Twist: A pair of offerings provides fast remote capture without adding software on the user end and eliminating time-consuming trips to the branch, all through a Web portal.
May 1, 2005... In the months leading up to the October launch of Check 21, the industry was abuzz with visions of electronic image exchange eliminating the hassles of handling paper checks. Seven months into the new landscape created by Check 21, image...

Security: Voca Tackles The Threat Within: UK Payments firm deploys a password management platform that automates control over access, an attempt to stave off security breaches from inside the enterprise.
May 1, 2005... The battle against inside jobs doesn't get as much public attention as external attacks, but for firms that handle hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of other companies, it really doesn't matter where the crooks are coming from-it's all...

Modeling: AmNet Gets Early Peek at Both Profits and Paychecks.
May 1, 2005... As financial products of all stripes become commoditized, they become less profitable, placing institutions under a great deal of pressure to maximize the revenue that is available. But as American Mortgage Network finance vp Ken Walker...

Six Sigma: Bofa Finds Gold In Industrial It Ploy: Very few financial firms deploy Six Sigma, but Bank of America has found ample use for it.
May 1, 2005... With its origins deep in the shop floor of Motorola Inc., Six Sigma is not immune to the misconception it is a process improvement program only a manufacturing company could love. Try telling that to Bank of America, which embraced the...

It's Time To Rethink Payment Strategies.
May 1, 2005... More than ever, consumers are moving from cash and check into electronic payments such as debit, credit, and Automated Clearing House (ACH) transactions. In 2003, the number of e-payment transactions exceeded traditional check payments for the...

How Mid-Tier FIs Can 'Near-Shore' Service Needs.(financial institutions)
May 1, 2005... The benefits of outsourcing managed services are no longer reserved for the largest financial institutions. For mid-sized institutions, the options for executing processes like customer service from countries around the world are expanding...

First CIO Summit Kicks Off in New York City.(Chief Information Officers)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... The CIO Summit, a thought-leadership program hosted by U.S. Banker and Bank Technology News, was created to help CIOs and CTOs explore industry challenges and opportunities. It kicked off March 14 with a dinner at The 21 Club, followed by a...