Technology

A recent spate of breaches on Asian banks that allowed hackers access to the Swift network have resulted in finger pointing, and some calls for creating a new, more secure network. But the issues faced by Swift would likely be the same with any replacement network.

Credit bureau TransUnion is diversifying its online security services with a strategic partnership announced this week with Dashlane, provider of a fast-growing password-management platform.

U.S. banks, already troubled to put in place the alliances necessary to operate in Asia and other parts of the world, have even more to worry about in light of investigators' allegations that North Korea played a role in the cyber attacks on Swift partner banks throughout Southeast Asia as well as the Bangladesh account at the New York Federal Reserve Bank.

Coin-counting machines came into vogue in the 1990s when Commerce Bank started installing "Penny Arcades" in its branches throughout New Jersey. They were a huge hit for a while, but banks have soured on the machines in recent years as usage declined and maintenance costs increased.

Well before the mobile payments explosion, incumbents were already focused on how to respond to nonbanks "piggybacking" on banks' payments infrastructure. As the consultant behind a 1994 banking industry report on the threat put it, "there is no time for delay."

The fight between Visa and Walmart over authenticating chip cards could have a negative outcome for everyone involved, regardless of which side wins.

Consumers, especially millennials, increasingly prefer to do everything on their mobile devices, including signing up for services. But as banks start to open accounts for people whom their employees have never met, there are plenty of questions about whether they can tell real customers and crooks apart.

Consumers, banks and merchants all want faster payments, but new technology only seems to be making the process slower.

PayPal next month will launch a new mobile app for its iOS and Android users, but anyone using the PayPal app designed for Windows Phone, BlackBerry or the Amazon Fire handset is out of luck.

Smartphones are an important window into understanding underbanked customers, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a report released Wednesday in conjunction with a meeting of the agency's advisory committee on economic inclusion.