Technology in Brief: Deals and deployments by financial institutions, and other newsHeadlines:
1st Data to Process Metris' Discover Cards KeyCorp Will Lend via Curomax System More Digital Insight Services for Compass TriCipher to Add Authentify Voice ID
1st Data to Process Metris' Discover Cards
First Data Corp. said Wednesday that it would provide transaction processing services for the Discover Financial Services Inc. card that Metris Cos. Inc., of Minnetonka, Minn., plans to issue
First Data, of Denver, the nation's largest payment processor, already provides processing to Metris for its existing portfolio. Metris, which agreed in August to be acquired by HSBC Holdings PLC, mostly issues MasterCard International cards, as well as a small number from Visa U.S.A.
Discover announced Sept. 19 that Metris would issue its cards.
First Data said the first Metris-issued Discover cards are expected to be available by yearend.
Donna Pennington, a First Data spokeswoman, said her company also provides processing for a Discover card issued by GE Capital Inc. for Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
First Data provides processing services for 1,700 card issuers around the world.
KeyCorp Will Lend via Curomax System
KeyCorp is joining the online lending service for recreational vehicles and boats operated by Curomax Ltd.
Curomax, of Toronto, said Tuesday that Key Recreational Lending, a unit of the Cleveland banking company's KeyBank, would be able to originate loans by the end of the year through the loan system.
Curomax provides an online origination network to 9,000 retailers in the automotive, recreational, marine, power-sport, and home-improvement markets. Its Web site lists 15 lenders in the United States and Canada, though only Bank of America Corp., Hibernia Corp., and San Antonia Federal Credit Union are in production in this country.
Key offers automobile, recreational vehicle, and marine loans in 48 states.
Grant Skeens, the president and chief executive of Key Recreation Lending, said in the Curomax press release that Curomax's "ability to customize the application to suit our requirements allows us to deliver our strategic value, enhance customer service, and differentiate ourselves from competitors."
More Digital Insight Services for Compass
Compass Bancshares Inc. of Birmingham, Ala., has signed up for more cash management services for its big business customers in a contract renewal with Digital Insight Corp.
Digital Insight, an outsourcing provider of banking technology, said Wednesday that Compass plans to use event-based alerts and an enhanced lockbox service that enables customers to customize searches and reporting of lockbox information.
The Calabasas, Calif., technology company already hosts Compass' cash management service.
Compass has been a customer since 2001; the renewal extends their contract through 2008.
Compass has corporate clients in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas, Digital Insight said. Ed Bilek, a spokesman for Compass, would not say how many companies use its online cash management services.
TriCipher to Add Authentify Voice ID
The Internet security technology vendor TriCipher Inc. of San Mateo, Calif., has landed a new customer and plans to incorporate a voice-authentication service into its online credential system next quarter.
The service is from Authentify Inc. of Chicago. TriCipher said it will be made part of its own Armored Credential System to give users another way to verify their identities.
Banks that use Armored Credential could also use the Authentify service to verify identities before issuing new passwords, TriCipher said.
TriCipher also announced Tuesday that Advanced Payment Solutions Ltd. of London would use Armored Credential with the stored-value debit cards it began offering this month.
Advanced Payment is expected to be using the system next quarter to protect its system for issuing, reloading, and redeeming the cards.
Rich Wagner, the chief executive and founder of Advanced Payment, said in a TriCipher press release that "our product has to match maximum security with user friendliness."
