BANK tech-trends News
 

 August 25 - August 29, 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

At the Flash Memory Summit, Intel demonstrated its latest version of Turbo Memory based on flash memory to accelerate application performance in Windows. Intel is offering a "dashboard" for Windows that allows the user to choose and control which applications or files are loaded into the Intel Turbo Memory cache (based on flash memory chips) for performance acceleration. Intel calls this "user pinning." However, Windows Vista already has a feature called "ReadyBoost" that can use storage space on some removable media devices, such as USB flash drives, to speed up your computer.

Intel was also showing off some amazing technology at their recent Intel Developer Forum. Demonstrations spotlighted the wireless transmission of electrical power, dexterous robots with new sensory abilities, a direct interface to the brain, programmable materials that can be used for shape-shifting devices such as resizable cell phones, and silicon photonics that enable chips to communicate via photons rather than electrons. There was even a discussion of the concept of concept of "singularity" where machine intelligence surpasses human intelligence.

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ATMs/Kiosks

According to the 2008 Debit Issuer Study, debit card issuers are increasingly offering their customers surcharge-free ATM access as a way of providing a higher level of service. The report, commissioned by the Pulse network, found that just over half (56 percent) of the total debit card issuers surveyed offer cards that participate in a surcharge-free ATM network. Also, nearly half (48 percent) of respondents offer reimbursement of ATM surcharges, but usually only to a portion of their cardholders. Of the institutions that reimburse ATM surcharges, 45 percent limit total monthly per-cardholder reimbursements. 

The Raminator is an antitheft ATM device that is comprised of a dual metal plate that acts as a shock absorber. The Australian manufacturer claims that it has helped stop hundreds of ATM thieves since being introduced. It basically tilts the ATM on an angle and bolts it firmly in place when attacked. 

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Digitus Biometrics’ MSN6100 door access devices consist of two parts. Outside the door, a unit contains a numeric keypad, LCD display and a fingerprint scanner. Mounted inside the door, a network-connected controller box contains security software and a database contains the user IDs and fingerprint templates. The electric strike that keeps the door secure only connects to the controller box. The firm says that this approach is different from similar access control systems, which use a single box sitting outside the door with wires on the back connecting to the network and the lock. They have also developed a very sophisticated code-hopping system that, each time the two halves of the unit communicate, they encrypt communications differently. Similarly, the prints themselves are not stored. A template is created that references certain points on the fingerprint and is stored as a long, encrypted binary number that cannot be reengineered to re-create the fingerprint.

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So-called "smart stickers" are starting to appear in the market that obviate the need to carry a separate credit card. These quarter-sized stickers are entirely self-contained, contactless payment devices that adhere to multiple metallic and plastic surfaces including mobile phones, PDAs and more. For example, Blaze Mobile will be delivering a Blaze Debit MasterCard with PayPass payment sticker. Unfortunately, many merchants are still reluctant to update their POS terminals to accept contactless payments, e.g., there are only about 110,000 MasterCard PayPass merchants worldwide. 

Top banks in the United Kingdom are looking to make money off of mobile banking by charging for text alerts. Typical charges run $5 or $6 a month to subscribe to a message service from the bank, plus 50 cents every time a customer requests information via text. Banks continue to provide basic account balance summary texts for free. However, some analysts believe that it is unlikely that American banks will follow the U.K. banks' lead and charge consumers for text messages because alerts have already been positioned as a free service. In fact, Chase has moved beyond alerts into mobile coupons. They have partnered with Visa on a consumer pilot that will enable its credit and debit cardholders to receive merchant offers and discounts via SMS text message. Cardholders will be able to set preferences on a website and choose offers and merchants that are most relevant and compelling to them, and they will be able to redeem them at the point of sale or the website of participating merchants. 

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BitDefender announced the launch of BitDefender Total Security 2009 which the company says provides proactive protection for PCs by combining advanced protection against malware, unsolicited email and other e-threats with minimal impact on system performance. Unlike other security solutions, which rely heavily on a list of pre-existing viruses, BitDefender uses proactive B-HAVE technology that they say identifies and blocks new and zero-day threats. The software also includes Instant Messaging and hard disk encryption.

Fair Isaac, a provider of analytics and decision-management technology, has introduced its Fraud Alert Network Forum — an online community where financial professionals share tips, techniques and experiences about sophisticated fraud schemes. The new forum, previously known as the CardAlert Fraud Forum, originally launched in 2002. The forum provides a secure environment for customers to discuss specific criminal attacks. Members can also alert each other to emerging fraud trends and share ways to mitigate losses. Membership is free for bank professionals.

Bank IT Departments that want to launch targeted phishing attacks, also known as spear-phishing, against their fellow employees have a new tool to help them measure the effectiveness of their security awareness and policies. The new Lunker phishing attack and audit tool uses templates that can be customized and it comes with monitoring features that analyzes the phished user’s actions in response to the phishing email. Lunker runs on PHP-based Web servers.

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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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Customer Effective, a reseller of Microsoft Dynamics CRM, recently announced a partnership with ExactTarget, a leading provider of on-demand, e-mail and one-to-one marketing solutions. With this partnership, Customer Effective will provide an integrated solution that helps businesses effectively target customers and prospects through integrated e-mail campaigns within Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

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Guardian Analytics has announced the general availability of FraudMAP 2.0 which analyzes all online account activity within and across sessions, including actions such as viewing check images or updating contact information. The company says that sophisticated algorithms predict and weigh inherent risk by a number of parameters, such as expected account holder behavior and size of potential loss, to more accurately alert banks to suspicious activity while minimizing false positives. In addition, FraudMAP 2.0 provides extensive session and customer-specific context for advanced fraud and identity theft investigation and prevention.

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Internet Access

Fonality is targeting smaller organizations with their two VoIP systems: trixbox and PBXtra. The firm says that it offers enterprise features on their VoIP systems at prices that small companies can afford. Fonality was chosen by Dell as their go-to-market small business telephony partner.

CallCopy, a provider of call recording and quality monitoring software, has introduced CallCopy Essential, the company's new VoIP call recording solution. CallCopy Essential helps small organizations easily capture and archive inbound and outbound calls. The software comes with a host of features, including a server-based architecture which doesn’t require installation at employees' desks. Recorded calls can be saved by administrators as WAV or MP3 files.

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Call Centers

The inContact platform by UCN provides intelligent routing of multi-media contacts to customer service representatives located anywhere. An enterprise-grade Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) is included in their software application, along with other features like skills-based routing, IVR, speech recognition and computer telephony integration (CTI). The application also features a number of capabilities for optimization of agent performance, such as caller experience surveys and agent scoring analysis, call monitoring, call recording, and workforce scheduling and forecasting.

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