Bank Technology News articles from October 2005

Bank Technology News archives from October 2005

Internal Attacks: Banks' Biggest Exposure Is From Within: Deloitte findings reveal a spike in internal incidents.
October 1, 2005... The amount of attention the press has given to ID theft, data breaches and phishing suggests that these are the greatest security threats faced by institutions. But while these external dangers can't be discounted, other hazards-notably attacks...

Checks: Small Check Printer Goes Against Grain: Shrugs off concerns of shrinking check volume.(Acom)
October 1, 2005... A small check-printing company is making some noise in the shadow of the industry's big boys, Deluxe Corp. and John H. Harland Co. Georgia-based Acom is pursuing community banks and credit unions to provide its check-printing services, with...

Web-site Redesign: A Nod to Function: Bank of the West works out the kinks on its site.
October 1, 2005... Bank of the West's iconic brown bear was in no danger of being flushed when the BancWest-owned San Francisco institution went through a Web-site redesign a year ago. The view of the bank's operations, on the other hand, needed a substantial...

Shared Credentials, Similar Goals?
October 1, 2005... Why the government wants to utilize banks' expertise for its E-Authentication Federation infrastructure is obvious. What's less clear is what banks stand to gain from the collaborative effort. Cover story, page 34 (c) 2005 Bank...

Edit Index.
October 1, 2005... A, B Acom 29 AITE 22 American Express 10 Ameritrade 31 AMR Research 10 ANB Financial ...

Measuring Likelihood of Consumer Adoption of 'Cool' Tech.(impact of technological innovations on financial services)
October 1, 2005... The pace of technological innovation across industries-financial services, media, entertainment and healthcare, for example-is at once greater than consumers could have hoped for and more promising than corporate America could have imagined....

Battle Of Tech Titans: Oracle Vs. Sap: Smoke, But No Fire: Bank platform war salvos only warming up.
October 1, 2005... Figuring out who's winning the SAP-Oracle battle in banking platform services doesn't require a scorecard yet. But an umpire might help. Despite each company's high-profile gambits to siphon away the other's application customer base, and...

News Makers.(Financial Services Roundtable's Check fraud Unit)(survey of investors on identity theft)(CardSystems Solutions Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Roundtable Assembles New Check fraud Unit The Financial Services Roundtable has launched its next initiative in combating check fraud. The FSTC's check imaging and truncation standing committee will oversee an industry project to develop...

Top Tech Deals.(Oracle Corp. buys Siebel Systems Inc.)(Hewlett-Packard Co. buys Peregrine Systems Inc. and AppIQ Inc.)(Fidelity National Financial Inc. buys Certegy Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Number One Oracle Corp. continued its expansion into the business applications field by acquiring customer relationship management player Siebel Systems in a $5.85 billion stock and cash transaction. Siebel has a customer base of 3.2...

Network Security: An Arkansas Bank Protects Communications Inside-out: ANB Bank is embracing biometrics as part of a project that also includes safety measures that work throughout the network, to meet the increasing threat of internal sabotage.(using Enterasys Secure Network from Enterasys Networks)
October 1, 2005... A couple of years ago, good security meant a good firewall at the periphery of your network. Today, given the wide range of threats that are coming at financial institutions, both internal and external, that is no longer enough. Instead of...

Legacy System Conversion: It's Finally Time for Banks To Learn New Languages: The cost to manage old core systems is going up, and the talent pool that knows the old systems is shrinking. Maybe that means the time to convert is now.
October 1, 2005... For banks that have been developing core banking applications since the 1970s and are still relying on those codes, the costs to manage those systems will likely be increasing, while the pool of talent that understands those systems will...

Vetting Customers: Authentication Today Means More Questions: Plus: Surcharge-free ATMs set up shop at the Astrodome from Cardtronics and Ventus.(George Waller of Strikeforce Technologies )
October 1, 2005... George Waller, evp and co-founder of Strikeforce Technologies, has been selling identity security technology to firms for a number of years, enough time to know that proving you are who say you are in today's climate is much harder than it used...

Techies.(Kevin Kessinger holds the duties of operations and technology at the Citigroup Inc.)(Tom Sanzone appointed for Credit Suisse Group)(Richard Smith for Equifax Inc.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Kevin Kessinger, president of Consumer Finance North America at Citigroup, will assume responsibility for operations and technology as part of a senior management realignment. * Tom Sanzone, former CIO and head of operations for the global...

Message Board.
October 1, 2005... "There's only so much you can do and keep your wheels on the bus." Ted DeZabala, principal of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, on balancing security investment with overall budgetary concerns. "Effectiveness comes first, because that's...

Stemming Losses: Bridging The Silos Of Fraud Management: New research from AITE say that while many banks still have single managers handling reports from anti-fraud units, most agree that detection should be handled on a single platform.(American International Technology Enterprises)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2005... Banks are finding success in efforts to stamp out check and card fraud losses. But, on an enterprise level, the culprits are still finding a way into the house. Loan-related fraud losses in the past five years have shot up from 19 to 30...

Making Personal Inroads with Businesses.(Susan Pittman of Wheatland Bank)(Interview)
October 1, 2005... Susan Pittman President, CEO and Chairman Wheatland Bank Wheatland Bank operates on the premise that, while it's a business bank, it shouldn't have to lose share simply because its customers want a product that isn't part of the...

Health Savings Accounts: As HSAs Multiply, So Do Tech Plays: With a market predicted to surpass that of 401(k)s, health savings accounts are becoming the hottest commodity. The market's explosive potential also has tech providers' tongues wagging.
October 1, 2005... Got milk? In a few years, health savings accounts, or HSAs, will be a fundamental banking product, a staple, like milk in a grocery store, says John Reynolds, svp and business director for Wells Fargo's health-benefits service. Right now,...

Payroll Cards: City National Removes Branch Clutter With E-salaries: Salary debit cards create a safe, quick way for the unbanked to get paid. But liability issues loom that could hinder high adoption.(City National Bank salary debit cards)
October 1, 2005... City National Bank of Florida could see a potential problem from the traditional methods some of its business customers were using to pay their largely unbanked employees. These payroll methods often required the bank to dispatch tellers...

Family Banking: Keeping The Kids Tethered To The Nest: Corillian's new product allows parents to better manage their teenagers' financial lives. The upside for banks? A foot in the door to future customers as they grow up and move on.(Corillian Corp.'s family banking)
October 1, 2005... What is the best way for a bank to capture teen and young adult loyalty? Corillian Corp. hopes to convince client institutions they can start with constraints on the purse strings. Keeping spendthrift college students away from their cash...

Protecting Customer Data: Grappling With Lost Data, Broken Trust: Data loss is an institution's worst nightmare. And with high profile cases like CardSystems, the largest players are playing damage control with customers-and facing the ire of Congress.
October 1, 2005... By force of numbers alone, this year is going to be remembered for a long time as the moment when it became stunningly obvious that customer data is anything but secure. This raises the question: just how much of an effect on customer trust...

Telephone Service: Payoneer Blazes A Trail With E-pbx: The card startup is using a virtual telecommunications service that aims to make both internal and customer-facing interaction easier and less expensive.(Onebox Receptionist's virtual PBX)
October 1, 2005... Yuval Tal says he'd dealt with phone system headaches enough in his career, so when he became president and CEO of a new card startup, one of the first moves was to get to the head of the teleco tech curve by adopting a system that...

Uncle Sam Comes Knocking.(Uncle Sam's E-Authentication Federation)(security measures of banking industry)
October 1, 2005... The U.S. government's interest in having banks help it form networks of federated identity, thus allowing vetted, shared user-credentials between government and private industry, is obvious. So far, only four banks-Wells Fargo, Wachovia,...

Wireless Processing: Primerica Goes Wireless In The Field: The insurer processes up to 35,000 policies a month with over half of those coming in the last four days of the month. That crush prompted a need for a faster method.(Primerica Financial Services Inc.)
October 1, 2005... When it comes to a new product rollout, any IT group would savor the kind of success that Primerica Financial Services has recently had. At a company conference in June, Primerica officials introduced new wireless software that the IT staff...

Ip Telephony: UMB's Getting Clear Signals For VOIP: Quality of service classes allow banks to rank which activities should get priority on a network. It's getting a try at institutions such as Kansas City's UMB Bank.(voice over internet protocol)
October 1, 2005... There are good reasons for banks to embrace voice over IP. It aids multi-media applications, facilitates channel integration, allows for system-wide software upgrades and could even make offshoring easier. But there are problems. Top among...

The Keys to Deploying Web Banking That Works.(banking industry)
October 1, 2005... John Kustomer has just opened a checking account at Acme Bank and is now visiting the bank's Web site to set up on-line bill pay. After noticing the broad array of services Acme Bank is featuring on its home page, he enters his user ID and...

Putting the "Customer" Back in CRM Strategies.(customer relationship management)
October 1, 2005... In this age of the 'never satisfied customer,' the need to be customer-centric has never been greater, yet the promise of customer relationship management (CRM) continues to be elusive. This is driven by two primary factors: customers have more...

VoIP Has Ample Benefits. But Only If It's Safe.(voice over internet protocols)(banking industry)
October 1, 2005... Technology continues to foster ways to improve the business of financial services, and the emergence of Internet Protocol (IP)-based telephony and related applications is a prime example. IP communications offers the industry the potential for...

Cautionary Tale Of Offshoring's Potential Peril.(outsourcing of software development to third parties)
October 1, 2005... Imagine an average day in the life of the U.S. banking system: customers coming and going, deposits and withdrawals being made, payments being processed. All of a sudden, a software crash brings everything to a screeching halt. Checks can no...

Client Reporting Is Too Manual.(financial information management)(financial services)
October 1, 2005... As financial services organizations focus more of their attention on wealth management and high net worth customers, the issue of providing clients with a total view of their financial position is becoming more critical. Both retail and...

New Tech Boosts Compliance Tests.(regulatory compliance testing )
October 1, 2005... Increasing regulatory requirements, such as Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 and the National Association of Securities Dealers' Rule 3013, requiring annual certification of compliance processes, have placed increased pressure on companies to perform...

Tough Times Call for Creative Risk Controls.(banking industry)
October 1, 2005... Peter Drucker once said that "everybody has accepted by now that change is unavoidable. But that still implies that change is like death and taxes-it should be postponed as long as possible and no change would be vastly preferable. But in a...