Bank technology

Banks must compensate consumers for fraud losses. On Tuesday, E-Trade Financial Corp. said it is doing the same for its brokerage customers - even if they could have prevented the losses.

Despite the concerns some are raising about the security of online banking, banks and vendors are continuing to show interest in single sign-on technology, which is meant to make it easier for users to authenticate themselves to multiple Web sites.

Viisage Technology Inc., a Billerica, Mass., vendor of biometric authentication systems, has agreed to buy Identix Inc. of Minnetonka, Minn., for $770 million in stock.

A Cincinnati automated teller machine servicer is crying foul over Visa's 2004 decision to defer indefinitely a certification deadline for systems that can upgrade ATMs to comply with the Triple DES encryption standard.

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Two image networks say they expect the brisk growth in image exchange volume to continue this year as more banks begin clearing checks electronically or increase their trading.

Gary Lewis Evans, the chief executive of B of I Holding Inc., says “the 20-year-olds are easy” to sign up for online banking.

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ING Group NV is again testing ways to sell to Americans while they are fast-forwarding past ING commercials.

Fifth Third Bancorp is using a new account-opening system from eFunds Corp., a Scottsdale, Ariz., vendor of electronic payments and risk management software, to measure the risk that a potential customer will overdraw an account.

Poor profit margins at First Data Corp.'s merchant services division may be behind the latest management shake-up at the Denver processing company.

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

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As CheckFree Corp. fights to defend its core business against a growing number of rivals, it is increasingly evolving into a company that directly interacts with consumers.

Banks using e-mail account alerts must be careful to avoid sending messages that look like the phishing e-mails they are fighting, an analyst warns.