Bank technology

Banco Occidental de Descuento in Maracaibo, Venezuela, plans to create a comprehensive payments system using several applications from S1 Corp.'s Postilion unit.

Shares in American Express Co. dipped Thursday after it said it would probably take a charge in the fourth quarter.

Bankers struggling through the credit crisis should remember that the right strategies for profitable futures will balance risks, costs, and opportunities.

Fidelity National Information Services Inc. said its second-quarter earnings fell by half from a year earlier as the company prepared to spin off the mortgage servicer Lender Processing Services Inc.

S1 Corp. said banks continue to license its software at a good clip despite the ailing economy, and that it plans to expand its product lineup and have its different business lines collaborate.

Deutsche Bank AG says an improved account substantiation process will give it better control of balance sheets at its business units around the world.

Heartland Payment Systems Inc. of Princeton, N.J., is using remittance management software from transmodus Corp. to include alphanumeric remittance identification tagging in its remote deposit capture lockbox system.

For years bankers have had only modest success getting customers to drop paper statements, so some are introducing accounts that are managed almost exclusively online and do not offer them at all.

The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication is developing a video and audio service for its online networking site, www.swiftcommunity.net, using technology from Veotag Inc. of New York.

Wolters Kluwer Financial Services Inc. has acquired the U.K. software vendor Compliance Online Ltd.

The Turkish banking company Bank Asya in Altunizade and transit system operators in Turkey are using VeriFone Holdings Inc. payment terminals on buses.

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

Sapp Bros Travel Centers Inc. of Omaha has agreed to use fleet card authorization and transaction capturing technology from S1 Corp.

Nacha, the electronic payments association, is delaying the implementation of a new code for international automated clearing house transactions for six months, to give banks and businesses time to install and test needed systems.

Inevitable is too strong a word, but there does seem a natural symbiosis between mobile banking and voice biometrics. Anyone who has scrambled in a purse or wallet for a credit card while talking on a cell phone and then speaking aloud a PIN or Social Security number, might have longed for less hassle and more privacy.

There’s scarcely a bank in the U.S. that doesn’t have an SOA strategy—the competitive pressures to move beyond legacy systems and create a flexible IT environment have filtered their way down to all but the smallest Main Street banks. And though it’s been the next big thing for a handful of years, only a few ISVs have built true SOA components that banks can buy off-the-shelf and implement.

Shares of Total System Services Inc. fell sharply Thursday after the Columbus, Ga., card processor reduced its outlook for the rest of the year and an analyst downgraded the stock.