Bank technology

To expand its sales in foreign countries, First Data Corp. has hired Nigel Bidmead as a senior vice president in its international division.

Metavante Technologies Inc. says it is developing new ways to detect and prevent fraud in its payment and banking systems.

The card maker CPI Card Group of Littleton, Colo., has bought a British counterpart, PCC, a move aimed at helping its efforts to expand into the United Kingdom and Western Europe.

S1 Corp. says demand is robust among banks in Asia for installations of several components of its Enterprise line at once, a sharp contrast to U.S. banks.

The table lists daily composite stock prices at 4 PM (unless otherwise noted) as measured by market capitalization.

Just about the only business-naming trend hotter these days than "as a service" is "in the cloud," and IT security offerings are no exception. "The cloud has become a trendy buzzword," says Craig Balding, a security practitioner at a Fortune 500 company, and proprietor of cloudsecurity.org. "Now's a great time to re-brand all those hosted services and call them cloud based."

With President Bush's signature on the landmark GSE/housing bill guaranteeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it is time to insure that the potential liability of trillions of dollars facing the American taxpayer does not turn into an actual obligation.

The Clearing House Payments Co. LLC has hired James D. Aramanda to be its chief executive officer.

A Bank of America Corp. collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has spawned one initiative to research the way technological innovation, and consumers' responses to it, that could shape retail financial services in the coming years.

U.S. gas stations are under a mandate to improve security at their pay-at-the-pump keypads, but even with a 2010 deadline approaching, very few are buying secure keypads, according to VeriFone Holdings Inc.

Tio Networks Corp. of Burnaby, British Columbia, said Tuesday it is offering walk-in bill-payment services to customers of Global Payments Inc.'s money-transfer unit, DolEx Dollar Express Inc.

TCM Bank, a Tampa credit card unit of the Independent Community Bankers of America's ICBA Bancard, plans to use a hosted system from Cypress Software Systems LP to automate the consumer card application process.

Consumers with Internet access are paying more bills online, according to a survey CheckFree, a unit of Fiserv Inc., released Wednesday.

A Nevada credit union service organization looking to provide more choice to users of its online banking software has struck a reseller alliance with Metavante Technologies Inc.

A computer bought on eBay Inc.'s online auction site held the personal information of at least a million customers of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, its Natwest unit, and American Express Co., according to reports Tuesday.

Hoping to attract customers from Canada's large and growing immigrant population, Royal Bank of Canada announced a translation service Monday that lets it offer live customer help on the phone in almost any language.