Bank technology

Global Payments Inc. is offering merchants in five new Asian countries the ability to accept China UnionPay cards.

The Scottsdale, Ariz., terminal maker reported a $375,000 first-quarter profit Wednesday, compared with a $9.9 million loss the year earlier.

Shares of Fidelity National Information Services Inc. soared more than 15% Thursday after The Wall Street Journal reported that the Blackstone Group LP private-equity firm was in talks to buy the Jacksonville, Fla., provider of banking technology.

Blackstone Group LP and other investors are in talks to acquire financial-data-processing company Fidelity National Information Services Inc., according to people familiar with the situation.

Jack Henry & Associates Inc. said its fiscal third-quarter net income surged 28%, to $31.6 million from a year earlier.

DocuSign Inc. said Wednesday that Idaho Central Credit Union would use its software to electronically sign loan documents.

Diebold Inc. said Wednesday it would upgrade the automated teller machines used by Alliance Credit Union and perform other outsourced banking services.

Visa Inc. may soon test a system for making contactless payments with an Apple Inc. iPhone using a case with a chip in it, according to reports.

An increase in data breaches and online fraud has security vendors betting that banks will embrace systems that use text messages, voice biometrics or secure browsers to better authenticate people and transactions.

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China UnionPay Co. Ltd. is under fire from domestic and foreign rivals that are vexed by its monopoly powers and want to gain entry to the country's rapidly expanding payments market.

Computer contractor bilks $2 million from credit unions who hired him; NYPD on the lookout for ATM attached to a Caddy?; credit union robbery attempt foiled by Florida man; and more.

The mortgage software provider Ellie Mae Inc. filed to go public Monday morning. The company also announced that its 2009 profit was $1.7 million on $38 million of revenue.

An India banking company is developing a biometric security system to authenticate withdrawals. Rushikulya Gramya Bank operates in several poor areas of Orissa state, where literacy levels are low, a bank official said last week.

The tech provider Talaris Ltd. has begun selling teller software that connects to cash automation machines.

First Data Corp. said SunTrust Banks Inc. has signed on to use the vendor's Star Network as its exclusive carrier of automated teller machine transactions and PIN-debit sales.

With merchants and card companies pushing people to abandon paper statements, financial companies are using electronic billing services to keep customers from abandoning their online bill payment sites as well.

For the time being the mobile banking environment is fairly safe. That's not because mobile phones are secure, often they're not. Few people use passwords or install anti-virus software. Security experts say they're safe simply because cybercriminals have not yet seriously targeted phones for malware. But as more people adopt mobile banking and it becomes more transactional-not just checking balances and getting alerts-the threats are likely to mount quickly.

Now's an exciting time to be the bank executives charged with rolling out mobile banking. As industry fortunes rebound, funding is suddenly available at many financial institutions, and consumers' ever-increasing use of their ever-more-sophisticated mobile devices put institutions in the enviable position of rolling out technology just as consumers are ready to embrace it, as opposed to inventing tools and trying to motivate adoption.

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