BANK tech-trends News
 

 September 1 - September 5, 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

Digital Check announced the first shipments of its new check scanner designed for RDC (remote deposit capture) for the merchant and small and medium business markets. The CheXpress CX30 provides a number of new features including adaptive Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) and scan and return mode of operation. The CheXpress CX30 can read the varying qualities of magnetic inks produced by desktop check printing applications, including support across printed checks with MICR intensity ranging from 40 to 200 percent. Digital Checks also says that the scanner is the first scanner in its class to support 300 and 240 dpi scanning in black and white, grayscale and color.

NextIO has launched an I/O platform that allows IT Departments to connect virtually any networks together. The company’s Adaptive Connect platform consists of a switch that incorporates PCI-Express adapters to connect to the transport of the user’s choice, whether it is Fibre Channel, Gigabit Ethernet, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel over Ethernet, iSCSI or Serial Attached SCSI. It supports any server, operating system or hypervisor, and any application. It does not require new drivers on the host side, nor the addition of host bus or network adapters in the server.

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ATMs/Kiosks

The ATM Industry Association has released its position paper on environmental aspects of ATMs. In it they say that ATMs are both highly efficient and low-energy users. The overall consumption of power by ATMs, when calculated over time, including idling times of extremely low consumption as well as during peak operation and power consumption spikes, is relatively low, especially when the number of families/households which ATMs typically service is taken into account. The paper recommends that ATMs set a "no receipt" as default, making receipts available by customer request only.

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LemonScreen is free facial recognition software that can be used on Windows XP webcam-enabled computer. When you first use it, you will be able to type a master password, in case LemonScreen locks your computer and it is unable to recognize your face to unlock your computer again. You will also have to create a face model, so that anyone's face in front of the webcam can be compared with the face model when your computer is locked. This program can bet setup to lock your computer after a predefined time of inactivity or the locking feature can be activated manually with mouse or keyboard shortcut.

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C.N.S.C. (Charge Notification Services Corp.) has launched their proprietary and patented credit, debit card and ATM transaction security service. The premise of the C.N.S.C. service is to put the cardholders in control of their own identity security by instantly advising them via SMS (Short Message Service) to their cellular telephones or PDAs each time a charge or withdrawal from a C.N.S.C. covered card is made.

The Go-Tag is a contactless payment sticker with reloadable prepaid card capabilities that First Data says will allow people to turn almost anything into a payment device. First Data expects many consumers will want to attach the stickers to their mobile phones. The Go-Tag currently offers only prepaid capabilities, though there are no technical obstacles to enabling the product to handle standard credit and debit card accounts. The tags can be reloaded at the point of sale, using credit and debit cards or cash, and can establish recurring reloads online, charged to a credit or debit account. First Data is developing a system to reload the tags with automated clearing house transactions.

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Despite rapid growth, the incidence of online banking fraud is “extremely low,” according to the TowerGroup. However, the research firm warns that banks must prepare for the emerging threats coming down the road - some of which "cannot be detected and prevented with current technologies." Banks should utilize the fraud detection tools used in the credit card industry such as transaction analysis and behavioral profiling. The firm also recommended looking for patterns in a deposit customer's behavior can help banks pick out suspicious activity while using IP geolocation – to determine the location of a user's computer - can also be useful.

Metavante announced that its enterprise-wide fraud monitoring and reporting efforts will be supported by solutions from Actimize. Metavante plans to introduce Actimize’s real-time, fraud prevention analytics solutions as one component in an enterprise-wide fraud prevention framework. The technology will first be available for its online bill pay solution with deployment to follow across other Metavante banking and payment solutions.

Panda Security announced the general availability of its 2009 retail product line: Panda Internet Security 2009, Panda Antivirus Pro 2009 and Panda Global Protection 2009. The company says that by extending their proprietary Collective Intelligence technology across all three products, users will benefit from faster and more efficient detection and disinfection rates; minimum PC bandwidth consumption; and full vision and traceability of the latest malware techniques and distribution points.

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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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According to Deloitte Consulting, banks have a great opportunity to harness the revenue potential of retiring baby boomers, but they must offer innovative product packages and investment advisory services that will allow them to compete with financial services specialists such as insurance companies, mutual fund firms and brokerages. They suggest that banks should consider offering products and services that attract retirees, such as reverse mortgages, retirement investing consulting and health savings accounts.

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According to research from TowerGroup, free online bill payment services will cost the US financial services industry $1 billion by 2010. The research house estimates that nearly 24 million Americans currently use electronic bill payment and presentment services (EBPP). Usage is increasing at a compound annual growth rate of 18% and is set to rise from 2.11 billion transactions in 2008 to 3.87 billion in 2012. One way in which banks can offset some of the costs is by charging for expedited bill payments. TowerGroup says many customers are willing to pay to ensure that payments are made within 24 hours to avoid being charged for late payments.

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Internet Access

Industry research firm InfoTech is reporting that Mitel is the US market leader for IP telephony for small businesses. InfoTech said that Mitel captured 17.2 percent of the 2007 SMB Internet telephony market, which puts them ahead of major competitors such as Cisco, NEC, Avaya and Nortel. Mitel merged with InterTel in 2007, gaining 8.5 percent of market share and beating its closest competitor NEC by 3.4 percent. Earlier this year, Mitel launched new unified communications products that include messaging, audio and Web conferencing, mobility solutions, and easy-to-use IP desk phones.

The number of branch offices keeps climbing - and with it the need to address WAN optimization and application acceleration options for distributed office sites. In response, Expand Networks unveiled its retooled branch office appliances, which are designed to provide organizations with greater scalability options. Both the Expand Accelerator 4830 and 4930 can scale from 128K up to 6Mbps. If users want to increase capacity, all that is required is a licensing upgrade, not a hardware swap. The Accelerator 4830 is priced starting at $2,395, and the Accelerator 4930 starts at $2,495.

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Call Centers

Inova Solutions has released a Web-based tool that will allow call center managers to retrieve comparative statistical information immediately. The firm says that their “Performance Tracker 2.0” will gather data from workforce management systems, internal databases and ACDs and produce charts, gauges and grids that will help call centers reach their daily goals. Performance Tracker is accessible by the Internet, compatible with most contact center data sources and based on Microsoft’s SharePoint platform. Plus, the solution is offers dashboard views tailored for various business roles that may be configured to display a contact center’s metrics, real-time or historical.

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