Bank technology

Bank of America Corp.’s Global Wealth and Investment Management business unit is using software from Microsoft Corp. to make it easier for employees to see information about customer accounts.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is hoping its new cash letter service will encourage large corporate customers to use imaging technology.

Barclays Bank PLC is using anti-fraud software from RSA Security Inc. of Bedford, Mass.

Nonbanking companies could soon become full members of the Swift financial messaging network, no longer reliant on financial institutions to sponsor them, an executive of the organization said this week.

Headlines:

The Treasury Department is stepping up its campaign to persuade tax preparers and businesses, especially small ones, to send tax payments through its electronic system instead of paper tax coupons.

A group of 24 voters filed a lawsuit to cancel the conditional certification that California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson gave last month to Diebold Inc.'s TSx electronic voting system.

The Financial Services Technology Consortium has proposed a technical standard that any institution could use to verify the authenticity of check images' security features.

Headlines:

Last week's acquisition of ClearCheck Inc. by TeleCheck Services Inc., a Houston unit of First Data Corp., demonstrates that check-handling service providers are continuing to consolidate as consumer check volume drops.

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

Headlines:

Headlines:

Shares of American Bank Note Holographic Inc. plunged this week after Visa U.S.A. said it had stopped distributing credit cards featuring a holographic magnetic stripe the Robbinsville, N.J., vendor developed.

The online banking software vendor Digital Insight Corp. says distribution partnerships like one it has with CashEdge Inc. will be an important way for it to reap more benefit from its strong position with middle-market banks.

Headlines:

Wachovia Corp. and International Business Machines Corp. are working on a system they say will accomplish something that has been elusive in banking technology: provide every business unit with the same information about customers.