Bank technology

Banks continue to gather ID documents manually from would-be customers, even ones who sought to open accounts online. Bringing the manual process into the digital age is the goal of several startups.

Paper-based marketing — not digital communication — remains a more promising way to reach customers 50 and older, who also tend to be a bank's wealthiest client segment.

Swift is taking another step to protect the payment system following a multimillion-dollar cybertheft early in the year.

WASHINGTON — A Republican lawmaker is urging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to consider issues related to virtual currency companies as the agency develops a fintech regulatory framework.

Fraud analytics, e-signatures, consent tools, artificial intelligence and notifications are all being floated as possible defenses against employees falsifying account openings and product sales.

Virtual currency advocates are hoping a recent surge of support in Congress can help them accomplish a long-sought goal of creating a safe harbor for companies that do not directly hold customers' funds.

Bankers may have a reputation for being old-school, but their rapidly growing digital-ad budgets are in step with the rest of the business world. Banks can both gather valuable demographic data from who clicks on their ads and better measure returns on their investments.

Banks can be more effective in connecting with customers by offering them personalized communications, rather than bombarding them with general sales pitches.

The surprise vote by the U.K. in June to leave the European Union may encourage fintech firms in London to expand across the pond. That was the case with Duco, a financial data management company, which recently added senior managers in New York. "Hiring talent in London was already hard on the tech side, and we think it's going to get even harder" says CEO Christian Nentwich. Duco was selected last year to participate in Accenture's Fintech Innovation Lab in London.

There's no tech solution in the world that can prevent cybersecurity attacks. To mitigate risks, however, banks can apply four controls after they first determine their risk tolerances.