Bank Technology News articles from September 2005

Bank Technology News archives from September 2005

Identity Management: A Corporate Headache Fuels It Splurge: Access-rights oversight climbs the company ladder.(Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. uses Xellerate Identity Management)
September 1, 2005... Lehman Bros. used to take a week to sever or modify an employee's access rights to its internal IT systems. That was understandable, given that the investment banking firm's nearly 20,000 employees were mapped across 400,000 user accounts and...

Delinquencies: The IVM Collector: CUs become automated to curb subprime losses.(credit unions, interactive voice message)(First Financial Federal Credit Union's contract with SoundBite Communications)
September 1, 2005... West Covina, CA-based First Financial Financial Credit Union faced slosing the core of its business. The institution had watched with increasing alarm as $14 million in delinquent subprime auto loans piled up, most over 60 days past due, across...

Offshoring: Feds Take Fresh Look At India Bpos: Major theft has raised more than a few eyebrows.(business process outsourcings)
September 1, 2005... The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has depended on U.S. banks' internal operations to monitor the security of their offshore captive sites or third-party provider contracts, primarily in India. Now examiners are taking a closer...

Giving Enterprise Security a Bigger Spotlight.(Bank Technology News launches Financial IT Security)
September 1, 2005... Securing a financial enterprise from the inside out is no easy task. Just ask those individuals whose job it is to do so everyday. With this issue comes the debut of Financial IT Security, a sister publication of BTN, whose mission is to...

Security: Behavior That's Abnormal: Banks are getting tough about protecting consumer data from internal and external threats. One of the newest weapons profiles users to identify unusual activity.(usage of Covelight Percept by First Citizens Bank N.A.)
September 1, 2005... Securing customer data from unauthorized access, theft or abuse, requires close, real-time monitoring of the behavior of both the employee and customer users who access Web-based applications. Many of the recent, well-publicized,...

News Makers.(Popular acquires E-Loan Inc.)(beliefs of John C. Dugan)(reports of TowerGroup)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Atm/Pos phishing alarm overblown Contrary to recent warnings that phishing fraudsters are now scoping out ATMs and debit POS-logging bank account numbers and PINs-a new TowerGroup report says ATM/debit phishing schemes are not quite the...

Top Tech Deals.(Oracle Corp. plans to acquire I-Flex Solutions Ltd.)(CardTronics acquired NEO Concepts)(Metavante Corp. acquired Brasfield Technology)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Number One Oracle plans to buy a majority interest in Indian application-software firm i-Flex Solutions. It will acquire a 41 percent ownership stake from Citigroup Venture Capital International, allowing Oracle to expand into the Indian...

Call Centers: As Patent Legal Battle Looms, Citibank Digs In For A Fight: Discover and other firms are also named in the suit, which alleges that firms are using patented technology without a license.(Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing L.P.'s case against Discover Financial Services Inc.)
September 1, 2005... In mid-July, Ronald A. Katz Technology Licensing filed a lawsuit against Citibank and Discover Financial, among others, alleging that the companies were using patented automated call-center technology without having licensed it. It isn't the...

A Trashy Problem: E-Theft Isn't The Only Way Banks Can Lose Data: Electronic waste is a controversial environmental issue. But is information also at risk?
September 1, 2005... Politicians, academics and activists have long argued over the safe disposal of computers and other electronic infrastructure. But now a specialist in used computers says the troubles may not be limited to environmental issues, such as the...

Techies.(Dominic Trotta appointed at Barclays Bank PLC)(Gordon Little appointed at RBC Global Services Australia)(William J. Hughes Jr. appointed at CapitalStream Inc.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... * British firm Barclays Bank has named Dominic Trotta CIO. The former CTO of Citigroup's North American and international retail banking businesses replaces Mike Foley, who will become the bank's chief administrative officer. * RBC Global...

Message Board.(beliefs of Terry Otte, John Heus and Virginia Garcia)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... "Businesses are acting pretty excited." Terry Otte, COO of First Bank NW Corp., on the availability of electronic payroll services to very small businesses. "It's moved from challenging to compelling." John Heus, business...

On-line Payments: E-Tailers' Cardless Options Turn Browsers Into Buyers: Web merchants searching for ways of attracting shoppers without credit cards-or those scared to use them on-line-are grabbing onto alternatives that promise security.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... As the on-line channel continues to surge in importance for retailers, so does the need to accommodate the virtual buyer who lacks a credit card. Almost a quarter of all adult consumers don't use plastic, a reality that has not been largely...

Meaning of Outsourcing More Than Words, Costs.(Dominick Cavuoto)(Interview)
September 1, 2005... Dominick Cavuoto President Unisys Global Financial Services When television hosts criticize the exporting of American jobs and intermingle the words "offshoring" and "outsourcing," it gets under Dominick Cavuoto's skin. To...

Business Banking: Bridge Jobs Out Its It To Lure Tech Biz: San Jose-based institution relies heavily on technology outsourcing in its battle to gain market share in California's technology business corridor. It's facing some pretty stiff competition.(information management of Bridge Bank N.A.)
September 1, 2005... How does a four-year-old, $500 million, Bay Area start-up business bank intend to compete successfully with Silicon Valley Bank and Comerica for the region's technology lending market? Mostly by using the same approach that has earned the bank...

Mortgages: National Mercantile Launches Private-label Product: The bank was tired of referring customers to other institutions. So it partnered with MoneyLine to open its own real estate operation.(new service of National Mercantile Bancorp.)
September 1, 2005... It can be expensive and cumbersome to start a mortgage lending operation, even for established financial institutions with deep customer relationships in other lines of business. But for National Mercantile Bank, the lure of making mortgages to...

Student Business: College Trifecta: ID, debit, ATM Card in ONe: UNC Greensboro and Mercer are among the schools combining higher education with customer acquisition. And it's convenient.(service launch by Wachovia Corp.)(University of North Carolina, identity)
September 1, 2005... When students at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, and at Mercer University in Macon, GA, return to school this fall, Wachovia Corp. will offer them something new: a student ID card that is also an ATM card and Visa-branded debit...

Targeted Marketing: Provident Opens New Mines For Data: Banks tapping more sources of data to form a better picture of their customers is a prime example of how firms are recasting CRM. And now it's being deployed to raise profitability.(customer relationship management of Provident Bank)
September 1, 2005... Banks have been talking about one-to-one marketing and targeted campaigns for years, but Provident Bank says it's on to something that moves beyond the decade-long CRM chatter, in part by dramatically ramping up the number of sources for the...

A Crystal Ball For IT Success: Executives talk about ROI frequently when pondering new initiatives. But what exactly does it entail? Banksare finding that going beyond a "money in/money out" measurement isn't as easy as it looks.(return on investment)
September 1, 2005... As Wachovia Mortgage Group's director of operations, Tom Wood watched the refinance boom gather steam in recent years and wondered whether the bank was doing all it could to capitalize on it. "We believe we lost a lot of opportunities," he...

Top Ten Community Bank IT Initiatives.
September 1, 2005... Banks that sport smaller asset sizes and serve limited areas face many of the same pressures as their larger counterparts. Yet in most cases it can be even more challenging for community banks, given smaller resources and staff sizes. That...

Electronic Payrolls: Oregon Trade Group Trades On Small Biz: An Oregon Bankers Association subsidiary enters into a partnership with PayCycle to provide e-salary services, and has a pair of early community-banking adopters.(First Bank NW Corp.'s partnership with BancSource)
September 1, 2005... Terry Otte wants his small bank to be able to compete with larger institutions, but the $800 million First Bank NW Corp. lacks the scale to perform the kind of due diligence necessary when undertaking a major endeavor such as providing...

E-documents: Less Paper Helps Td Banknorth Expand Loans: The lender says automating its documents can help it win personal loan business.(contract with eLynx Technologies L.L.C.)
September 1, 2005... There's obviously more to consumer lending than mortgages, and TD Banknorth hopes it can take the success it's had in making mortgage loans quickly and expand it to other lines, such as auto loans and personal loans. The key to the...

Optical Wireless: To Absorb Volume Spikes, East West Avoids Wires: As the vendor expands, it turned to the new technology to save the expense and hassle of laying cables for the additional work stations.(East-West Mortgage Company Inc.)
September 1, 2005... Refinancings and other fallout from the mortgage boom have caused "good" problems for lenders in terms of handling extra volume. But even good problems are still problems. So since mid-July, a new networking technology has helped mortgage...

Account Aggregation: Will Authentication Kill Aggregation?: Multi-authentication features may keep account aggregation from thriving. But aggregation firms like Yodlee are fighting back, claiming that the death knell hasn't sounded yet.
September 1, 2005... No critics of slow-going on-line account aggregation, the trend toward stronger user authentication underscores an obvious point: It could be a pipe dream after all. Forrester issued a report in June pronouncing the "death knell" for...

Document Imaging: Tiny Scanner Aims To Help Small Banks: Community institutions are shedding courier trips to local Fed offices, and outsourcing is simplifying the process.
September 1, 2005... Toasters hold a quaint place in the distance past of perks banks offered to make things easier for their customers. At a growing number of small banks, it's a toaster-sized device that's paving the way toward a future when paper itself will be...

Deep Cover Auditors Spot Easy Security Holes.(information management of banking industry)
September 1, 2005... Alex faced a 45-minute commute to his London flat and needed to pack for his trip to the New York home office the following day. But first things first: He had a few things to check on the network before leaving the bank for the day. He wanted...

Authentication Done Right Secures Web.(information management of Banking industry)
September 1, 2005... As more people rely on the Internet for fundamental banking services, criminals have become smarter about using the Web to commit a host of crimes. They've also become more organized and sophisticated, using a diverse set of tactics to launch...