Bank technology

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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First-quarter revenue slipped at Diebold Inc., but executives said the company is booking more orders for intelligent-deposit automated teller machines from regional and community banks.

Cardtronics Inc. swung into the black in the first quarter, driven by strong transaction volume growth.

Banks are ready to spend more on technology, but concerns over compliance expenses could keep some of them from moving forward soon with major upgrades.

Banks are ready to spend more on technology, but concerns over compliance expenses could keep some of them from moving forward soon with major upgrades.

The company wants to transform its retail outlets to let customers handle much of their banking needs on their own, using self-serve processes that have been perfected online.

Visa Inc. notified online merchants this week that they cannot present offers from third parties without asking for their card information a second time.

Profits fell in the first half of Wincor Nixdorf AG's fiscal year even though second-quarter results in the Americas exceeded some analysts' expectations.

Most security experts say encryption is the best way to protect payment card data, according to a report from Thales Group and the Ponemon Institute.

Now that converting paper checks into electronic transactions has gained widespread acceptance, bankers are considering a new payment format that would bypass paper altogether.

The freeze on spending for core-processing upgrades is continuing to thaw with several large and small banks looking at overhauling their technology, according to Fidelity National Information Services Inc. executives.

Blippy.com exposes users' credit card information; scammers target iPad users with new program, not the device itself; McAfee update inadvertently disables users' computers; and more.