Headlines:
Alogent Image Software for Northern Trust Benchmark to Market Perimeter Service Payment Data Gets Insurance Account
Alogent Image Software for Northern Trust
Northern Trust Corp.'s branches will use Alogent Corp.'s Sierra Xchange software to convert paper checks into images for forwarding to image-exchange networks.
Alogent, of Alpharetta, Ga., announced the deal Tuesday. It said the $41 billion-asset Chicago banking company will also use its Sierra Xpedite software to automate and validate its check-balancing process and handle large deposits, and its Sierra Clearing to process the paper checks it processes in Florida.
Peter Ruegsegger, a Northern Trust senior vice president, said in Alogent's press release that the image software "reduces teller workload and improves transaction processing."
Banks are starting to settle and clear checks using images instead of the original paper items. Many say their goal is to convert checks into image files as early as possible in the check handling process - at teller stations, automated teller machines, or branch back offices.
Benchmark to Market Perimeter Service
The branch automation provider Benchmark Technology Group Inc. of Alpharetta, Ga., has agreed to offer to its customers a cyberattack defense service from Perimeter Internetworking Corp. of Trumbull, Conn.
Perimeter monitors data traffic between a bank's network and the Internet to protect against viruses and other attacks. Community banks are its main customers.
"Intense competition, higher customer expectations, growing demand for personalized service, and increasingly complex regulations place tremendous pressure on the IT capabilities of community financial institutions," said Brad Miller, Perimeter's chief executive, in a press release issued Tuesday to announce the deal with Benchmark.
"By assuming complete responsibility we enable financial institutions to focus on" their core banking operations, Mr. Miller said.
Payment Data Gets Insurance Account
The ailing transaction processor Payment Data Systems Inc. of San Antonio is moving into insurance processing.
On Monday it announced a deal to process payments for Online Insurance Services Inc. of Orange Park, Fla. Three million dollars of payments a year may be involved, it said.
The announcement was the second piece of good news in a week for Payment Data.
Last Thursday it announced that the authorization and settlement firm Central Bancard LLC of Davenport, Iowa, was handling seven billers it could not serve previously because they had weak credit ratings and its other settlement firm would not touch them.
Early this month Payment Data reported that about half its staff had recently agreed to accept common stock in lieu of about six months of unpaid wages.
Payment Data was originally named Billserv and focused on electronic bill payment and presentment. In 2003 it sold off most of its assets and shifted to processing automated clearing house transactions as well as debit and credit card payments for billers and merchants.
