Bank technology

The Waltham, Mass., micropayment software vendor Peppercoin Inc. has sold itself to Chockstone Inc., a Portland, Ore., loyalty marketing vendor.

A vendor says it is hoping to persuade banks and brokerages to offer customers security tokens embedded within payment cards.

Propelled by a proliferation of payment options, the use of the automated clearing house system continued to swell in 2006.

John W. "Jack" Henry, the co-founder and acting vice chairman, of the Monett, Mo., banking technology provider and outsourcer Jack Henry & Associates Inc., died Friday of natural causes at age 71.

As details of Citigroup Inc.'s cutback plans emerged last week, new information about the company's ongoing technology projects sparked speculation that the company may be mulling a core processing upgrade.

With word that Bank of America Corp. may be close to scaling back its bill-payment relationship with CheckFree Corp., many in the industry are wondering if the Charlotte company is adopting a technology stance similar to that of JPMorgan Chase & Co., where do-it-yourself is usually the preferred choice.

The communications provider TNS Inc. of Reston, Va., has promoted Dennis L. Randolph Jr. to chief financial officer and treasurer.

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The five banks that own Viewpointe Archive Services LLC have almost attained a goal they set for themselves 19 months ago: to clear electronically all their common checks within the massive, shared image repository.

First Data Corp. of Denver has acquired Instant Cash Services, an automated teller machine processor, from Wells Fargo & Co.

Coca-Cola Bottling Company United Inc. of Birmingham, Ala., plans to equip its vending machines to accept MasterCard Inc. contactless payment cards.

The Single Euro Payment Area project has cleared an important hurdle but still has many more in its path.

West Coast Bancorp of Lake Oswego, Ore., has agreed to put Coinstar Inc.'s coin-counting kiosks in 10 Northwest branches.

A security vendor has made a business out of selling merchants information about stolen payment cards accounts — data that banks could often provide for free but generally are reluctant to share.

Open Solutions Inc. of Glastonbury, Conn., said it hopes its deal to acquire the Canadian vendor Fincentric Corp. will help it expand its core processing offerings and grow faster abroad.