Bank technology

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.

When it closes its $408.2 million deal for InterCept Inc., Fidelity National Financial Inc. would become the second-largest core processing outsourcer for banks.

Headlines:

Jack Henry & Associates Inc.’s acquisition of Banc Insurance Services Inc., the outsourcing vendor’s first move into insurance, demonstrates that insurance is an increasingly important element for companies hoping to attract bank customers.

An Indian financial software company whose biggest customer and shareholder is Citigroup Inc. has formed another alliance to crack the U.S. market.

Mobile branches and portable automated teller machines have been around for a while, but most bankers say the technology that connects them to their home base has been nothing to write home about.

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The Oct. 28 implementation date of the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act is often portrayed as the banking industry's equivalent of a start gun at the Olympics, the opening salvo in a race to use check images, the day on which every bank must be in perfect technological form.

InteliData Technologies Corp., the electronic bill payment vendor facing a potential delisting from the Nasdaq National Market, plans to move its stock to the Nasdaq SmallCap Market at the opening of business today.