Headlines:
Solidus Adds Two Software Customers JPM, Fidelity National in Exchange Deal Fundtech Board OKs $20M Share Buyback IdenTrust to Add ID Products from Bharosa
Solidus Adds Two Software Customers
Solidus Networks Inc. has two new customers for its products - Fiserv Inc. and Pathmark Stores Inc.
Fiserv's ACCEL/Exchange electronic funds transfer network will use software from Solidus' ATM Direct to let merchants accept PIN debit transactions online, the San Francisco vendor said Monday. ACCEL/Exchange will be the first EFT network to use the software for Internet transactions.
Merchants that use the software incur lower transaction costs than they do for credit card and signature debit transactions, Solidus said.
Pathmark will soon install Solidus' Pay By Touch fingerprint payment system in its supermarkets. Customers enroll in the system at store kiosks by linking their fingerprints to a checking or credit card account. They can then authorize payments from those accounts by pressing a finger against a scanner at a point of sale terminal.
The Carteret, N.J., chain has 141 stores, in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. It plans to test the Pay By Touch system before conducting a major rollout. It did not say which stores would be the first to use the system.
Pay By Touch is already in use at supermarkets run by Piggly Wiggly Carolina Co. of Charleston, S.C., and at Pick n' Save Metro Markets run by Roundy's Supermarkets Inc. of Milwaukee.
JPM, Fidelity National in Exchange Deal
JPMorgan Chase & Co. hopes to attract correspondent banking business and encourage check imaging by exchanging items with Fidelity National Information Services Inc., a big provider of outsourced check processing.
"Fidelity is the back office for these banks," Carl Shishmanian, a senior vice president at JPMorgan Chase and a senior product executive in its global deposit services group, said in an interview last week, after the deal was announced. "We decided to make it easier for the banks by working together."
The arrangement would serve bank customers that the New York banking company and the Jacksonville, Fla., vendor have in common, as well as and other Fidelity National customers that might switch to JPMorgan Chase for correspondent services, he said.
"This is a good opportunity to move the industry forward to a higher level of image exchange," Mr. Shishmanian said.
Some customers are sending image files to JPMorgan Chase now, and others are preparing to do so, he said.
JPMorgan Chase said it has invested over $100 million in imaging technology, and Mr. Shishmanian said it is the No. 1 correspondent bank in the nation. He said JPMorgan Chase could enter similar deals with other processing vendors.
Fundtech Board OKs $20M Share Buyback
Fundtech Ltd., a maker of banking software for corporate cash management and foreign exchange, said its board has authorized a $20 million share repurchase program.
The company, which has dual headquarters in Jersey City and Ramat-Gan, Israel, said Monday that it would purchase up to $6.7 million of ordinary shares using its retained earnings over the past eight quarters. It said it could also petition a court in Tel Aviv for approval to spend up to $13.3 million more.
No time limit was set for the buybacks.
Fundtech has 15 million shares outstanding. Over the past year the stock's price has ranged from $8.90 to $13.10. The shares rose 11.1% Monday morning, to $10.15 at midday.
IdenTrust to Add ID Products from Bharosa
The San Francisco identity management company IdenTrust Inc. has agreed to offer its customers online authentication software from Bharosa Inc.
IdenTrust announced last month that it would integrate Bharosa's products into its network infrastructure and make them available to customers early next quarter.
The deal would provide customers with the tools necessary to meet the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council's mandate for implementing strong authentication measures, IdenTrust said. That mandate, which will be enforced at yearend, requires banks to supplement their username and password authentication systems with stronger measures for high-risk online banking transactions.
Bharosa's products include digital keypads for submitting passcodes without using a keyboard, to avoid the keystroke-logging viruses, and a product that looks at a user's hardware and network settings to determine if they match the user's known online behavior.
