Bank technology

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.

Two developments in the lockbox market last week indicate the financial services industry's efforts to promote electronic payments to corporate customers are prompting banks to consider whether they want to make the kind of investments the business increasingly requires.

The Dayton, Ohio, automated teller machine manufacturer NCR Corp. has agreed to use payment processing software from Postilion Inc., a S1 Corp. unit.

Liberty Bank of Middletown, Conn., has agreed to use online banking software from Intuit Inc.

CheckFree Corp. has provided additional details about how it plans to integrate Carreker Corp., including expanding Carreker's consulting operations and naming its chief executive a vice chairman of the Atlanta bill-payment provider.

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The financial transformation of bank vendors will probably sharpen competition and could be a catalyst for innovation in the transaction processing industry, analysts said Tuesday.

FirstBank of Nigeria PLC has agreed to use anti-laundering and compliance software from Mantas Inc., a Herndon, Va., unit of i-flex solutions ltd. of Mumbai.