BANK tech-trends News
 

 November 3 - November 7, 2008

• Hardware News
• Software Updates
• ATMs/Kiosks
• Biometric Digest Highlights
• Wireless World
• Security Section
• Leaders Roundtable
• Technology and Marketing
• Online Banking/E-Commerce/
  Website Design
• Internet Access
• Call Centers

Hardware News

There have long been power benchmarks for PCs and servers, such as those from the Energy Star program of the Environmental Protection Agency. But the networks that link those systems haven't been held to the same level of scrutiny. Now router maker Juniper Networks and test equipment vendor Ixia have partnered to unveil the Energy Consumption Rating (ECR) Initiative for measuring the power efficiency of certain classes of network devices. The ECR methodology can determine the number of watts a network element consumes per gigabit per second of traffic. ECR today is designed to test individual systems in the network, but over the next year, the group plans to work out a way to test the efficiency of the whole network.

Lenovo announced a new ThinkCentre desktop - the M58/M58p - with added remote manageability. The machine uses Power Manager, which is designed to lower energy costs by enabling system administrators to remotely monitor and adjust the amount of electricity used by the PCs. For example, Lenovo noted that the PCs can be programmed to shut down evenings or weekends. The ThinkCentre M58/M58p also supports Hardware Password Manager, which enables administrators to remotely check on various system passwords and deal with issues that arise with them.

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ATMs/Kiosks

The ATM Industry Association, a global ATM trade association with more than 1,100 customers in 50 countries, is offering an ATM management program. The program is free for ATMIA customers.

Fees for withdrawing cash from an out-of-network ATM rose again this year, according to a survey released by Bankrate.com. The average cost of using another institution's ATM is now $3.43, up 13 percent from last year. The $3.43 average ATM fee includes the surcharge levied by the ATM's owner for nonaccount holders ($1.97) as well as the fee institutions charge for using an out-of-network ATM ($1.46). Nearly all ATMs have surcharges for nonaccount holders, according to Bankrate.com.

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British bank HSBC is rolling out biometric facial recognition technology from OmniPerception at some of their data centers. They will install 10 access control systems based on OmniPerception's CheckPoint technology to verify the identity of employees and contractors and protect sensitive data at the sites. CheckPoint uses "light immune" cameras - which the vendor says work in gloomy conditions - alongside identity verification software -to protect access to restricted areas.

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MasterCard has launched a facility for card issuers to install PayPass contactless payments functionality onto consumers' mobile phones over the air. The MasterCard Over-the-Air Provisioning Service lets issuers transfer a PayPass application onto a secure area of NFC enabled handsets via the mobile network. Consumers then personalize the application with their individual payment account details over the air. Account holders will then be able to make low value payments at the point of sale by swiping their phone against specially equipped terminals. Retailers that have PayPass systems include McDonald’s, Rite-Aid, United Artist Theaters and BestBuy. However, US wireless carriers aren’t supporting the type of phones necessary to communicate with the PayPass system at this time.

Over the last 18 months there have been a number of strong marketing campaigns promoting mobile banking, but here is a new one: sign up for mobile banking and get a free mobile phone. To help launch their mobile banking solution Regions is giving away 25,000 free "high-end" phones (i.e. Blackberry Pearl, LG Shine, or LG enV). Some observers note that the 2-year relationship required to get the new phone will bring them enough profit to cover the initial cost of the phone.

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Earlier this month the US Federal Trade Commission warned that phishers would take advantage of upheavals in the financial marketplace to confuse people into handing over personal information. According to security services firm MessageLabs this is coming true. They note a surge in the number of phishing e-mail attacks against financial services firms. The increasing volume of bogus messages are offering mortgages, debt consolidation, credit counseling and other 'financial advice.' Meanwhile according to CardCops, stolen credit card numbers are fetching only $2 or $3 each on today’s market, while “full profiles,” data sets that include a credit card, mother’s maiden name, date of birth, social security number and possibly an ATM PIN, command $10 apiece. 

Mandiant released their newest free tool for incident response and forensic investigations. The tool, Memoryze, can acquire an image of physical memory from a running Windows system. It can image just the memory of a single process or a driver, list all running processes (even those hidden by rootkits), and list network sockets and strings (URLs, e-mail addresses, passwords, etc). Memoryze also has several specific capabilities that can help determine if a rootkit is running such as reporting on device and driver layering, identify all loaded kernel modules and identify hooks often used by rootkits. Memoryze contains a small subset of the functionality available from Mandiant Intelligent Response (MIR) that can do all of the above and more, but at an enterprise level. 

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Core Systems:

Core Systems – Collaborating to Better Serve Customers

COCC - http://www.cocc.com Read Joe Trafton's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/COCC.pdf

Fidelity Information Services - http://www.fidelityinfoservices.com Read John Schooler's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/FIS.pdf

Open Solutions - http://www.opensolutions.com Read Michael Nicastro's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/OSI.pdf

Software and Management Associates - http://www.smausa.com Read Michael W. Taylor's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/SMA.pdf

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Giesecke & Devrient, one of the world’s largest providers of payment transaction cards, recently delivered its latest range of card products to financial institutions in Germany, the United States and China. They include a scented credit card, a card branded Crystal Card, and a card to which a mini CD card can be attached with a snap-on mechanism. The company says that credit and debit cards are gradually evolving into lifestyle accessories and represent a highly efficient means of attracting new customers and promoting customer loyalty. The scented cards can emit a fragrance of coffee, orange or cinnamon when they touch the user’s fingers. In a related development, the CPI Card Group has produced millions of bioPVC cards that according to the firm are made from a 99 percent PVC product that biodegrades in nine months to five years in soil, water, compost, or wherever microorganisms are present.

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The US Federal Reserve Board says it will increase the processing fees for paper checks by 41% next year as it looks to encourage migration to electronic collection. In contrast, the Fed says fees for the Reserve Banks' electronic payment services will increase by just 2%. The Fed says the number of checks deposited electronically has grown rapidly in 2008. In August, the proportion deposited with the Reserve Banks for collection was around 83% and by the end of the year this is expected to surpass 90%.

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Internet Access

Colorado-based IP5280 specializes in business VoIP services that scale all the way down to a home office and all the way up to a Fortune 500 company. They say that their Polycom HD Voice phones offer quality that is much better than what people are used to in the PSTN world. The Polycom SoundPoint IP 650 HD phone has a USB port in the back of it, which allows for selective call recording capabilities in the call center. They say that the phones also help employees who have hearing issues or are hearing impaired, and that all employees are able to communicate better on the phone as a result of HD voice. The firm is convinced that hosted VoIP not only gives customers the flexibility and features they have never had before and cost savings, but now the quality is actually better with the high definition Polycom phones.

The Computer Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), an organization representing business interests of the information technology industry, released a survey showing that organizations that give their employees the flexibility to work from home profit from productivity improvements, lower operational costs, and from being able to find and retain talented workers. Nearly 60 percent of respondents checked off cost savings as another significant benefit of telecommuting. Other advantages of telecommuting that respondents cited include: 


- The ability to hire the most qualified staff, regardless of where they live (noted by 39 percent of respondents)

- Higher employee retention rates (37 percent)

- Decrease in employee stress (25 percent) 

- Ability to reduce auto emissions (17 percent)

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Call Centers

Plantronics announced the launch of a new EncorePro wideband headset for contact centers. The headsets are built to offer wearing comfort and include lightweight nylon composed plush leatherette ear pads that spread over the ear for extended wearing. It also features a noise canceling microphone and is available in both monaural and binaural versions for $137 and $160 respectively.

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