BANK tech-trends News
 

 December 15 - December 19, 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

SonicWall is revamping its Continuous Data Protection (CDP) storage appliances. Two of the new boxes are designed for small and midsize businesses with 400GB of storage. The other two, with up to 4.25TB of RAID 5 storage, are designed for central corporate sites to back up smaller appliances. CDP client software runs on each machine to be backed up. The new models and their base prices are CDP 110 at $2,000, CDP 210 at $3,500, CDP 5040 at $9,000, and CDP 6080 at $12,000.

Drobo is a storage system from Data Robotics that makes multiple SATA disk drives look like one big virtual disk drive. Drobo virtualizes up to 4 SATA disk drives transparently - they can be any size and make as long as it’s a SATA drive. With Drobo, you can easily remove a disk drive and replace it with another one - online and transparently. 

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ATMs/Kiosks

A new report from Mercator Advisory Group's Retail Banking Practice says that technology enhancements, footprint deployment saturation, surcharges/surcharge-free networks and transaction channel optimization are keys to banks leveraging their current and future installed base of ATMs. They note that the ATM provides the perfect platform for banks to introduce themselves to potential new customers in their community and that providing leading edge machines with enhanced services in convenient, surcharge-free locations might be the ultimate introduction. One example that the research firm points out in particular ATMs featuring technology capable of imaging cash and checks can reduce costs by $1 per transaction.

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Over two thirds of people would be willing to undergo fingerprint scans to verify their identities when dealing with financial institutions and government organizations, according to a global survey from Unisys. The poll reveals that only personal passwords rank higher than fingerprint scans as respondents' preferred identification verification method, by just one per cent. The high acceptance of biometric verification comes as respondents continue to express concern about identity theft. Unisys' security index shows that worry about the fraudulent use of credit or debit cards ranked the number one or two highest concern in 11 of 13 countries surveyed. Identity theft ranked as the first or second highest concern in 10 countries.

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Firethorn is adding marketing features to their m-banking application. Firethorn has created three new service features designed to give new marketing opportunities to Firethorn banks:

• Offers Feature - provides the ability to extend targeted promotions to customers regarding products or services. 
• Rewards Feature - coupled with bank rewards programs, it allows customers to track their loyalty points. 
• Customization Feature - allows providers to customize their services as programs evolve by adding desirable new functions in designated areas throughout the application. 

Fidelity National Information Services and Obopay announced a person-to-person (P2P) mobile money transfer service for banks using FIS core processing services. Through the alliance with Obopay, FIS says that they are the industry’s first core provider to launch a mobile phone-based P2P payment service.

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Trend Micro says that computer users are their own worst enemies believe their research shows that the majority of the attacks carried out by 2008's top 100 pieces of malware were caused by users surfing to malicious sites and then accepting some kind of download. The top 100 attack programs infected 53% of their victims by duping them into downloading something from the Internet. An additional 12% of the infections tracked globally were caused by users opening e-mail attachments. Just 5% of the infections were related to an exploit of a software vulnerability, according to Trend Micro's analysis. 

Palo Alto Networks is adding data loss prevention (DLP) technology into their next-generation firewalls. The new feature can identify and block the egress of personal information such as Social Security and credit card numbers. The application-level firewall also can block some unauthorized applications that may lead to internal data leaks, such as peer-to-peer applications.

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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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Discover Financial Services has launched a credit card in the US made from biodegradable PVC. Discover says 99% of the card plastic can be safely absorbed when exposed to landfill conditions. It will break down in soil, water, compost or wherever micro-organisms are present, fully degrading within five years.

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Intuit has launched a new version of their online personal finance tool that incorporates a forward-looking pay check and spending forecaster designed to help consumers stay ahead of their spending and anticipate shortfalls. Users can also receive alerts to mobile phones and PDAs to let them know if they are in danger of going overdrawn or exceeding their credit limit. In addition, they can set limits on their spending and receive alerts when they get close to exceeding them. This new free online version brings Intuit into competition against sites like Wesabe and Mint. 

According to Trans Union, the average credit card debt per borrower (not per household) was $5,710 at the end of October, about 6% higher than one year ago. The highest state average bankcard debt was in Alaska at $7,827, followed by Nevada at $6,636 and Tennessee at $6,568, while the lowest average bankcard debt was found in Iowa ($4,277). Trans Union also reported that nationally, the ratio of card borrowers delinquent on one or more of their cards increased to 1.09% in the third quarter, up 4.8% over the previous quarter. 

According to the annual Cybersource e-commerce fraud survey, e-commerce fraud is up slightly over last year to about $4 billion in 2008. The 2008 figure represents about 1.4 percent of merchants' total online revenue for the year - roughly the same percentage of loss that merchants have experienced in each of the past three years.

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Internet Access

Qualcomm has struck a deal with ICO and Mobile Satellite Ventures to put satellite and cellular phone technology into baseband chips embedded in multi-mode phones. This will both allow mobile phone users to access satellite connectivity and enable handset makers to develop EVDO, WCDMA and LTE phones that are satellite-capable.

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Call Centers

Workforce management solutions are designed to help ensure that call volumes are properly forecasted and that agents are scheduled according to availability and skill. But they also have the side benefit of permitting representatives to provide input into their scheduling, everyday processes and even overall center operations. Some contact center experts believe that this input can result in very valuable information being captured in the system that can be used to improve overall practices. That is because reps are often the first to hear of important issues concerning customers, internal processes, website, etc., and workforce management software can offer a forum in which to share this valuable information.

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