Bank technology

ORLANDO — With the world's payment systems becoming more tightly linked, the Federal Reserve Board is expanding its international automated clearing house capabilities.

Banking technology vendors are developing applications that financial companies can offer to their smallest business customers, a market segment bankers say is underserved by most products.

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The Financial Services Technology Consortium will evaluate the use of biometrics to fight fraud within the banking industry.

Growth of automated clearing house transaction volume fell to single digits last year as the recession slowed payments activities and electronic check formats matured.

eBay Inc. says it has made the programming code for the PayPal Inc. payment system available to external software developers.

With lending operations stagnant, some of the major cash management banks are trying to boost revenue with electronic services that can be resold through correspondents and help corporate clients manage their capital.

The effectiveness of the Payment Card Industry data security standard was called into question during a House subcommittee hearing on cybercrime.

Buying its next-largest competitor in core processing would make Fidelity National Information Services Inc. a giant in banking technology and position it against the even larger companies it expects to enter the market.

A member of the Senate Judiciary Committee is pushing for legislation that would protect banks from a high-stakes patent infringement lawsuit related to check imaging.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. of Jacksonville, Fla., said Wednesday that it had agreed to acquire Metavante Technologies Inc., making it the industry's largest banking technology vendor by far.

A lack of direction and funding from the federal government has hindered a nationwide transition to payment cards for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. is using anti-money-laundering technology from Metavante Technologies Inc.

Chris Church, the chief executive for the Americas at the global financial cooperative Swift and its global head of securities, has joined the board of the XBRL U.S. Consortium, a trade group promoting the extensible business reporting language.

If its online auction business does not improve, eBay Inc. may face pressure to spin off or sell parts of its PayPal Inc. and its Skype Internet phone service, according to Youssef Squali, an analyst with Jefferies & Co.