Headlines:
Corillian Buying Software Vendor Qbt
The online banking technology vendor Corillian Corp. of Hillsboro, Ore., has bought qbt Systems Inc., a New York provider of financial services integration software.
The price was not disclosed.
Qbt has 15 credit union customers, including three of the top 10. Its flagship product is MultiPoint Integrator, a real-time processing engine that acts as a centralized transaction hub.
Brian Bodell, qbt's president, will become the senior vice president of Corillian's community banking solutions group, which will integrate qbt's products with Corillian's. The two companies worked together to install software at Boeing Employees Credit Union of Tukwila, Wash.
Alex Hart, Corillian's president and chief executive, said qbt's software will make it easier for his company to integrate its own software into the systems at credit unions and small banks.
It may also help the company provide technology for managing credit card issuers' billing Web sites, Mr. Hart said. Corillian has such a relationship with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and is working on establishing others, he said.
Dan Schatt, a senior analyst for the Boston market research firm Celent Communications LLC, said qbt gives Corillian "an opportunity to go downstream and provide some fairly sophisticated functionality for some of the smaller guys."
Fed to Close Oregon Processing Center
The Federal Reserve Board is preparing to close its check processing center in Portland, Ore.
It said Tuesday that the site will stop accepting checks Oct. 22. Those now handled there will be processed at the Fed's Seattle facility.
Jack Walton, an assistant director with the Fed, said the change will require it to modify its routing codes, because the checks from the Portland site will become local checks at the Seattle site.
As the Fed continues to consolidate its check operations nationwide, he said, "the number of nonlocal checks will shrink," Mr. Walton said. That will affect the times when banks must make deposited funds available.
The Fed had 45 check processing centers in 2003, but with volume declining it has been paring them back.
It has announced closings in each of the past three years. In 2003 it said it would shut down 13 centers around the country; they have all closed. Last year it announced plans to close nine more by early 2006, including the one Portland; it has already closed four of those.
In May the Fed said it would close its site in East Rutherford, N.J., in the second half of 2006.
The Fed expects a bigger drop in its check volume this year than last year's 12%.
The Fed will conduct another review of its check processing operations next year and announce more closings if necessary.
"As people and businesses change their use of payment instruments, it puts more pressure on us to appropriately size our infrastructure," Mr. Walton said. "Over the next few years we will see continued consolidation."
