Bank technology

As personal financial management software gains traction at banks, vendors are starting to tinker with its long-established formula.

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U.S. Bancorp has hired Total System Services Inc. to provide card processing services for its consumer-directed health-care benefit cards.

Man pleads guilty to stealing card numbers found on FBI-run forum; the most popular passwords are strings of numbers; memory sticks turning up in the laundry; and more.

To the Editor:
"Contactless Cards Go Untouched" [Jan. 22] outlines the challenges that financial institutions and businesses have faced in implementing and promoting contactless card technology, something that Aite Group's Nick Holland attributes to a poor job of marketing "Tap and Go" to businesses and consumers.

PayPal Inc. helped drive its parent eBay Inc. to its first profit increase in more than a year.

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First Data Corp. is reorganizing its international division as part of an effort to unite the company into a single global organization that can develop and deliver products faster.

A $60M settlement between Visa and Heartland Payment Systems "has many weaknesses," according to lawyers representing Visa card issuers that could have potential claims over the 2009 data breach at the payment processor.

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Di Valerio joined Coinstar Jan. 19 and will take over as its CFO on March 2, succeeding James Blanda, who is currently serving as its interim CFO.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. is offering transaction processing and other payments services to members of the National Restaurant Association.

The Government Information Transparency Act has not been enacted, and until it also includes a directive to legislate a data content standard, it should not be.

Has "Tap and Go" come and gone? As issuers mail out contactless credit and debit cards by the millions, it's not clear how often they are being used.

Staring at the potential loss of billions in overdraft fees, some banks are generating income by abandoning the commoditylike nature of checking accounts.

Patelco Credit Union in San Francisco has agreed to use Guardian Analytics' fraud protection system to monitor suspicious online activity, the vendor said Wednesday.

The Federal Reserve banks have announced plans to conduct a comprehensive study this year of check and electronic payments in the U.S.

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A new entrant in the tax-payment business is playing the price card to compete against two established companies.

"Money mules" more informed than previously thought; Facebook requiring victims of security breach to use McAfee scans; Conficker programs still in use; and more.