BANK tech-trends News
 

July 21 - July 25, 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

Hitachi announced its 7K1000, a 3.5-inch terabyte drive for PCs that also offers full-disk encryption (FDE). This drive joins a growing number of encrypting drives from Hitachi as well as Fujitsu and Seagate. Most industry observers believe that Samsung and Western Digital can't be far behind. Hitachi is targeting desktop PCs, not just laptops, while Seagate is currently the only vendor offering an enterprise-class encrypting drive. As this trend accelerates, storage-based encryption should become mainstream.

Unisys announced the addition of currency processing to its "smart" line of payments products and services. Unisys SmartCash Currency Processing complements Unisys SmartSource Series check image capture products. The Unisys SmartCash line includes one currency dispenser and two currency recyclers. The SmartCash Currency Dispenser targets both the teller line and the drive-up banking area, while the SmartCash Compact Currency Recycler can be used by tellers as an automated cash drawer either standalone or integrated into a teller application. The SmartCash Dual Delivery Currency Recycler is designed to be shared between two tellers and offers sit-down or counter-height use.

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ATMs/Kiosks

Select-A-Branch, the multibranded surcharge-free ATM network, reported on Tuesday that it has completed installation of 10 machines in Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority subway stations. Select-A-Branch, which is an independent sales organization that deploys cash dispensers that cardholders of the network’s entire financial-institution membership can use without being surcharged, now has about 150 ATMs deployed and expects to have about 200 ATMs deployed by year’s end. 

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Web cameras are becoming more prevalent in home computers these days and many laptops are now equipped with built-in web cameras. A company called XID Technologies offers Face LogOn Xpress software for these machines, which uses the company’s facial synthesis and recognition technology to visually recognize a user and log that person in to their computer, just by looking at the camera. XID claims that their facial recognition technology is the only solution that is able to function in outdoor, uncontrolled and real world environments. 

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According to TowerGroup research, 40 million Americans will be m-banking by 2012 and the research firm believes that "mobile banking and payments are a game-changing event and in the not-so-distant future mobile will outshine the desktop for banking." Two of the driving factors for offering mobile services will be to reach Generation X and Y consumers and the under-banked. However there are some obstacles to overcome, such as perceptions of weak security and the slow adoption of contactless mobile payments. 

A survey of banks, mobile operators, merchants, handset manufacturers, and other service providers, conducted by the Smart Card Alliance Contactless Payments Council, reveals that a majority believes contactless payments using mobile phones and near-field communication (NFC) technology will win widespread adoption. Meanwhile according to Juniper Research, total payments made on handsets equipped with NFC contactless technology will grow to more than $75 billion by 2013.

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The Finjan "Q2 Web Trends Security Report" says cybercrime is no longer the domain of just loosely affiliated hackers, but can be characterized as more akin to traditional organized crime. Finjan's research revealed that the boss of a cybercrime organization acts as the entrepreneur (and keeps his hands clean). Underneath this person is the underboss, who manages the operation, provides the software for attacks, and oversees the command and control of malicious campaigns and botnets. Then come the campaign managers, who use their own “affiliation networks” to attack systems and pilfer data, which is then sold by the resellers.

Secure Identity Systems (SIS) is offering banks their new anti-phishing services. The firm says that their services enable banks to track the occurrence of their name, brands, trademarks, and slogans on the Internet, and that after a phishing site is detected, countermeasures are launched to take down the phishing site. The technology uses Internet surveying, which works by comparing the authentic website with a continuously updated database that includes over 172 million websites and domain names, SSL certificates, and feeds of phishing data from multiple sources.

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Online Banking:

Online Banking... Catering to Your Most Desirable Customers

Digital Resolve - http://www.digital-resolve.net Read Dennis Maicon's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/DigitalResolve.pdf

Exstream - http://www.exstream.com   Read Jerry Driscoll's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Exstream.pdf

Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com Read Marley Gray's comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Microsoft.pdf

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

Piraeus Bank - http://www.piraeusbank.gr   Read Sotiris Sirmakezis' comments: http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/Piraeus.pdf

uMonitor - http://www.umonitor.com   Read Dinesh Sheth's comments:   http://www.banktt.com/roundtable/uMonitor.pdf

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De novo branch development has been robust for the past few years, but in these difficult economic conditions, many analysts are predicting that new branch growth will slow dramatically in the second half of 2008 and all of 2009. This means that any new branches that banks are building become that much more important in terms of customer retention and overall performance. According to Washington, D.C.-based Capital Performance Group, that branch placement may account for as much as 65% of its success. The firm recommends that banks carefully choose their new branch locations taking into account multiple variables such as market potential, demographics, financial product usage and demand, population density and other institutions in the area.

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Decoupled debit cards entered the market in 2007 when Capital One rolled out the first decoupled card product during a regional trial. Decoupled debit cards are issued by an organization other than the consumer’s checking account provider, but also provide access to the checking account just like a regular debit card. A recent SYNERGISTICS report, Optimizing Debit Card Programs, examined consumer reaction to decoupled debit cards. The found that: one in seven see a decoupled debit card as “very” valuable, while four in ten see some degree of value in this type of card. Younger respondents – those ages 18 to 49 – are more likely to perceive this as “very” valuable. Positive response also widens with frequency of debit card usage and is more prevalent among those debit card users that currently receive rewards.

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Internet Access

Juniper is unveiling WAN application acceleration appliances that it says deliver more performance for the money than earlier models. The WXC 1800, 2600 and 3400 appliances are designed to deliver consistent application response across the WAN, providing more LAN-like experience for branch office users accessing centralized applications. The WXC 1800 can accelerate WAN traffic up to 2Mbps, typically at small to medium branch offices. The list price starts at $4,895 for the WXC 1800, which supports as many as 10 connections.

Cisco already has declared the end-of-sale and end-of life dates for Cisco PIX Security Appliances, software, accessories, and licenses as of July 28. banks that are using the PIX devices and are looking to migrate to Cisco’s ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances may want to take a look at the latest offering of the AlgoSec Firewall Analyzer Product Suite from AlgoSec. With the AlgoSec migration solution organizations upgrading from PIX to ASA now can automate the error-prone and labor-intensive manual task of rule-by rule comparison, according to the company. With its off-line setup, AlgoSec says that their application is easy to deploy and use even in the most complex firewall, router and VPN environments.

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Call Centers

Nuance announced the launch of SmartListener software technology which adapts to a larger variety of more natural responses from callers. According to the company, using SmartListener technology, an automated speech recognition system can better focus on the concept behind caller’s words and decipher callers’ actual requests. Nuance claims that the most important feature of SmartListener technology is that it can recognize out-of-grammar inputs received in a speech-enabled automated system, enabling the system to recognize the caller requests correctly the first time more frequently. Nuance research shows that out-of-grammar utterances are the main reason for the failure of automated customer service solutions across the world. They outnumber other performance issues by a ratio 5:1.

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