Bank technology

U.S. Bancorp is offering software that will allow its corporate clients to convert paper checks into digital check images at the customers' offices, and the images can be used to make electronic deposits or converted into automated clearing house transactions.

BOSTON - Opening the 2004 Financial Insights banking technology conference here, Michon Schenck, the chief operating officer of the Framingham, Mass., research firm, said that bankers "are and have historically been one of the highest spenders in technology."

Headlines:

KeyCorp is offering an integrated lockbox system designed to automate the processing of payments for physicians’ offices.

To drive up demand for its automated clearing house payments to Mexico, the Federal Reserve banks have lowered the cost.

Bank of America Corp. has started testing later deposit deadlines for consumers.

Bankers are voicing concerns that the security features built into paper checks may not survive the transition to digital images, but a Financial Service Technology Consortium study indicates several features remain viable after imaging.

Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. may emerge as bidders for a big Indian outsourcing operation that General Electric Co. is said to be trying to sell.

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

The recent establishment of a standard for digital contracts for auto loans could lay the groundwork for broader use of digital documentation in other types of credit, lenders and observers say.

Much of the banking industry considers this year the culmination of a years-long effort to implement an electronic processing system to replace the vast paper check infrastructure.

Wells Fargo & Co., which once helped launch an online bill payment venture to compete against CheckFree Corp., has signed a five-year contract extension with the Atlanta company.

Symantec Corp., well known for its consumer anti-virus products, has introduced an anti-phishing service for financial institutions.

More consumers are signing up for high-speed Internet connections, and banks are realizing that the move presents an opportunity to offer more services and flashier advertisements.

Bisys Group Inc. is outsourcing its automated clearing house processing to eFunds Corp. to attract business processing payments for a relatively new type of medical savings account.

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