BANK tech-trends News
 

 August 18 - August 22, 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

Dell has rolled out its revamped lineup of nine new Latitude and Precision laptops that they say were designed with the input of real world users. Focus groups said that they wanted: long battery life, better security, good design and the machines to be simple to manage. The units include Software called Dell Latitude ON, which allows access to email, calendar, attachments and contacts without booting the operating system; and ControlVault which is a sub-processor and storage system that protects user credentials in an area away from the main hard drive. Plus the Latitude E6400 features battery life of 19 hours.

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ATMs/Kiosks

In the recent indictment of 11 alleged card thieves, there is a scary accusation. The indictment claims that the group intercepted encrypted versions of debit card PINs, decrypted them, and then used the information to print debit cards and get cash from ATMs. Details are sketchy, but if proven true, that could mean criminals have crossed a new threshold in the pursuit of plastic card fraud: PIN hacking.

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Canada’s TD Waterhouse Discount Brokerage is rolling out voice biometric authentication from Nuance Communications to protect its customers’ transactions. The TD Waterhouse Voice Print System allows clients to create a unique voiceprint, which is converted into a mathematical representation of their voice, then stored on file and used to verify their identity. The firm has over 1 million discount brokerage clients in Canada, of whom almost a fifth access their account by telephone.

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Mobile remittances - a person-to-person payment system that is cross-border in nature and involves mobile data applications at either end of the transaction - is moving in on a total global remittances market of a half trillion dollars annually. New TowerGroup research finds that the accelerating investments being made in mobile payment platforms will be a disruptive industry force. The research firm believes that mobile remittances represent an avenue for financial institutions to initiate relationships with unbanked consumers - who are heavy users of both remittance products and mobile phones - with an eye to fueling deposit inflows through later cross-sale of traditional banking products like checking and savings accounts.

Texas-based ERF Wireless is busy replacing T-1 lines between bank branches in Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana with high capacity wireless links. Not only can they receive ten times the bandwidth they had with the T-1 lines for about the same price, but ERF Wireless helps them resell that capacity to customers - ERF Wireless claims that they can turn a capital asset into a revenue producing asset.

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According to a report from Cyveillance, most anti-virus tools detect less than half of active malware attacks. None of the AV offerings that Cyveillance tested detected more than 55 percent of the malware, and only three - F-Secure, Sophos, and Trend Micro - detected more than half, while packages from Kaspersky and McAfee detected just over one third of the malware. The test proves that signature-based technologies such as AV are losing ground in the fight to protect data, Cyveillance said.

Sunbelt Software, known best for its popular CounterSpy antispyware, has developed a "hybrid" antivirus antispyware engine. In addition to antivirus and antispyware protection, Vipre features other useful tools such as a secure file eraser that writes 1s and 0s over deleted files, a history cleaner that goes beyond just what's in your Internet browser cache, and something called PC Explorer, which reveals processes and services running that are suspect or known to be malicious. Vipre costs $29.95 for a single user license, and $39.95 for a three-user license. 

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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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Consumers' trust in their primary financial institution is a major driver of share of wallet capture according to a study released by Mercatus, a financial services strategy consulting and investment firm. The study reveals that the average share of wallet captured by financial institutions increased by 18 percentage points on a scale of 1-5, from 34% at a trust score of 1 to 52% with a trust score of 5. Their research found that key factors affecting the level of trust that consumers have in their financial institution include:

-- Transparency of banking costs such as deposit service charges and nuisance fees such as over limit and late payment fees on credit cards

-- Clarity of operational processes

-- Employees' preparedness to go "above and beyond" to meet their needs

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Fiserv announced its Source Capture Optimization approach to offer banks the ability to enhance functionality of all sources of deposit gathering, including branch, teller, ATM, merchant, and customer capture solutions. The system combines CheckFree thin-client technology - a web-based application in which software is not loaded on the client’s computers - with existing Fiserv image capture solutions to enable consistent functionality for all deployment models including in-house, outsourced and ASP.

In a related story, Fidelity National Information Services is touting their remote deposit capture offering dubbed FIS Xpress Deposit. All customers need are a home computer, a flatbed scanner and a broadband Internet connection to use the service.

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Internet Access

Zeacom, a provider of Unified Communications (UC) Solutions for small organizations, has introduced the latest version of its UC suite, Zeacom Communications Center (ZCC) 5.1. This latest version extends unified communications from the desktop to mobile devices, and is equipped with advanced features and functionality. The functionalities offered by ZCC are Presence, which gives staff and operators information on people’s whereabouts and availability; Desktop Telephony and Microsoft Outlook Integration. The version 5.1 comes with a new full-featured, SIP-based audio conferencing module with visual GUI control, and can now automatically adjust voice mailbox greetings based on calendar appointments.

RingCentral is offering small organizations SaaS (software as a service) applications that are replacing the need for expensive on-premise PBX deployments. RingCentral’s solution is designed for the mobile and distributed world and the hosted solution starts at $9.95/user. Services include auto-receptionist, custom greetings, fax-to-email, multiple extensions, find-me and follow-me applications. The firm offers the option to freely test it on their website and see how it can meet their business phone service needs.

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Call Centers

Call recording is an important part of quality assurance, but smaller banks may not have the resources to afford a sophisticated call recording solution. Fortunately, there are inexpensive ways to automatically record, log, playback, and email customer calls. One option is to use a voice activated tape recorders directly connected to supervisors' lines (logged on to service observation function). The input for the recorder plugs in where the headset plugs in. You can purchase the tape recorders and the phone cord plug-ins from Radio Shack for a few hundred dollars.

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