Do You Really Know Your Vendor?
More than half of financial services firms (51 percent) questioned by PricewaterhouseCoopers cop to not requiring that third party servicers comply with the institution's privacy policies. PwC's survey also found that only 45 percent perform due diligence of third parties that handle personal data of customers and employees. But fear not: 81 percent of financial firms consider themselves "somewhat" or "very" confident in the information security practices of their partners and suppliers.
A License to Pay At the Pump
A driver's license can do more than prove you've visited the DMV. In the 24 states that attach magnetic stripes, licenses can be used as debit cards to sidestep fees from bank-owned card networks when purchasing gas. By registering licenses at Rollbackprice.com, National Payment Card, a Coconut Creek, Fl.-based intermediate service provider, uses online registrations to link license information to a four-digit PIN.
CheckFree's at the Top of the Charts
Celent's ranking of a dozen Internet bank offerings across 10 technology providers is in, and CheckFree, which bolstered its online banking strength by purchasing Corillian in 2007 - then was subsequently acquired by Fiserv - has finished at the top of the rankings. Metavante finished number two, and Digital Insight, now a part of Intuit, finished third. Celent also singled out Online Resources, S1 and Fidelity National as having made strong advances in their platforms during the past year.
