Headlines:
Remote-Capture Demand Strong
Corporate customers are clamoring for remote capture, according to NetDeposit Inc. of Salt Lake City.
The Zions Bancorp. unit said Friday that its bank customers are now installing more than 100 of its remote-capture systems each week.
Remote capture enables businesses to convert their customers' checks into digital images and transmit them to a bank for deposit. Businesses like it because it saves them trips to the bank and can speed up deposits. Banks like it because it helps them win customers where they have no branches.
NetDeposit said that this year its systems have transmitted more than 23 million check images, for more than $34 billion.
Wis. CU Tests Corillian Product
University of Wisconsin Credit Union has become the first customer to test Corillian Corp.'s second anti-fraud product.
Corillian's Intelligent Authentication software evaluates people's online habits, including the hardware they use to access a Web site, how they access the Internet, their location, and the time of day they tend to conduct their online banking.
Such patterns "are very typical and predictable," said Eric Bangerter, the Madison credit union's director of Internet services, in an interview last week. The credit union tried to develop a similar tool on its own but gave up last year because it could not devote the resources to it, Mr. Bangerter said.
Corillian's product "is right-on in terms of what we needed," he said. The credit union is testing the software and expects to incorporate it into its logon by January.
Jim Maloney, the chief security executive at the Hillsboro, Ore., banking technology vendor, said the software works by keeping a file of the last 50 "access signatures" for each customer, detailing how and when they used the credit union's online banking site. When people try to log in, the software will permit them to access the site immediately if their usage patterns match previous habits.
If someone's login attempt does not match the attempts on file, Intelligent Authentication will ask the person doing the login a series of questions.
Mr. Maloney said the data the software collects is "the same information that ends up in the Web log" of visitor data that many companies already store.
University of Wisconsin Credit Union also uses Corillian's consumer online banking software, and Mr. Bangerter said he plans to buy Corillian Fraud Detection System, which was introduced in July 2004. "It's just a budget decision right now," he said. "From a product standpoint, we've already decided it."
Corillian Fraud Detection examines the Web logs of visitors to a Web site to determine if any visitors may have been using the site to create a counterfeit banking site that could be used for phishing.
Mr. Maloney said that criminals who visit bank sites to duplicate them for phishing scams have distinctive patterns. They use the fake sites to trick people into revealing personal information that could be used for identity theft. Mr. Maloney said that companies can use Corillian's anti-fraud products even if they do not use its online banking software.
Corillian's two anti-fraud products complement each other, Mr. Maloney said. "From CFDS, we have lists of PCs and IP addresses that correspond to phishers," he said. Some countries are known phishing havens, and "we can say 'always block' or 'always challenge'" them.
Two more companies have bought Intelligent Authentication, but Mr. Maloney could not name them. He said Corillian is talking with 10 more companies, including some e-commerce site operators, and expects to have at least five new contracts signed by yearend.
CheckFree Renews BECU Bill-Pay Deal
The Seattle credit union BECU has renewed its electronic bill payment contract with CheckFree Corp.
CheckFree announced the "multiyear" extension Monday but did not specify the length of the agreement. The Atlanta company is the top provider of bill payment services.
BECU, formerly the Boeing Employees Credit Union, has more than 415,000 members and assets of $5.6 billion. It offers its members free bill-pay services.
In July, BECU said it was using a funds transfer service from CashEdge Inc. of New York that enables members to transfer money to their accounts at other banks and credit unions through the automated clearing house network.
