Bank technology

Fiserv Inc. has a new integrated cash deposit system that its customer banks can offer to corporate banking customers in the retailer segment.

Total System Services Inc. plans to use mobile phones to gain a larger foothold in micropayments through a service that would allow card issuers to use loyalty points and cash for point of sale transactions.

Reliance Bank can't do without the services of its hired loan auditors. But it is not keen on having them fly in and stick around its Athens, Ala., offices for several days four times a year.

SunTrust Banks Inc. is dropping its current debit partner Visa Inc. in favor of MasterCard Inc., the market's scrappy underdog.

The Purchase, N.Y., payments company said the service, MasterCard Advisors Merchant Solutions, would give merchants insights into how consumers spend their money and how merchants are able to attract customers.

Financial institutions that focus only on converting online customer into mobile customers will successfully drive adoption of mobile banking services, but will likely fail to substantially lower the cost to serve their customer base.

At least 22 million adults in the U.K., or 53% of the country's 41.4 million regular Internet users, banked online in 2009, according to Financial Fraud Action UK, a payments trade group.

Online transactions and spending volume in the U.S. rose again during the holiday shopping season compared with a year earlier and the average transaction amount fell for the second consecutive year, according to Chase Paymentech Solutions LLC.

Many banks' alert systems can notify customers when their balances reach a preset threshold, or when a deposit clears, but observers say these features are not especially compelling. To really make these notices useful, banks should offer alerts that can deliver more information to more destinations.

Police using GPS units to thwart robbery attempts; flaw in Google's Android allows users to bypass security; Tex. man allegedly behind scam involving identities of the homeless; and more.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., already a dominant provider of payment automation services for large corporate clients, is trying to extend its reach to smaller companies.

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Visa Inc. said it is "disappointed" that Best Buy Co. is no longer accepting contactless Visa cards, though it noted that consumers may still use the same cards to initiate transactions through the cards' magnetic stripes.

U.S. Bancorp's merchant acquiring unit, Elavon, has started a hosted payment gateway it calls Fusebox.

The fee structure of eBay Inc.'s Bill Me Later instant credit service violates a California consumer protection law, according to a law firm that is suing the San Jose company on behalf of consumers.

Del R. Tonguette, a consultant in New Albany, Ohio, and longtime debit industry executive, died Saturday, apparently of a stroke exacerbated by blood thinners, his wife, Diane, said Monday.

A technology start-up has developed a text-message service that it says banks can use to improve customer service.

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Heartland Payment Systems Inc. and Visa Inc. have reached a settlement agreement in which Heartland will pay Visa's issuing partners up to $60 million for damages related to a 2008 breach of Heartland's network.