Bank technology

About 60% of the first cards loaded onto Apple Pay are Visa cards, and the card network plans to build on this beginning in an aggressive mobile commerce strategy, according to CEO Charles Scharf.

While banks almost universally offer mobile services, such as smartphone apps or mobile-friendly websites, their customers have been slow to use them, according to an American Banker/SourceMedia Research white paper.

Because of the conflicting messages from providers of mobile payments, consumers are not yet sold on the possibility that they can use apps to replace their plastic cards.

Total System Services is close to beginning tests of new products and merchant services, and is already seeing a benefit from last week's launch of Apple Pay. But in prepaid, a significant business for the processor, TSYS is still awaiting new rules from the government.

Rather than wait until after a data breach to increase information-security investments, banks should put into place practices that help prevent cyberattacks in the first place.

It's surprising how much advice varies about how to respond to customer complaints on social media. Ignore small threats, some say, while others warn banks to respond immediately because they could go viral. Still others think banks should overhaul their whole customer experience to disarm critics.

Arthur Levitt, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has been named an adviser to two bitcoin companies.

Put Apple's Tim Cook and Alibaba's Jack Ma under the stars together and a partnership just might bloom.

Bank of America revealed its technology limitations to entrepreneurs at a company event in Silicon Valley, hoping some of the startups could provide assistance in areas like workflow and analytics.

Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s bid to replace the consumer wallet with its mobile payment system ran into a roadblock as CVS Health Corp. (CVS) and Rite Aid Corp. (RAD) disabled the technology in their drugstores.

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Capital One and Regions Financial are downplaying their interest in partnering with peer-to-peer lenders because of concerns about the risks associated with them.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

The Wells Fargo Digital Lab, which opened in late September, offers a glimpse of what banking could look like in years to come.

The Fed's hotly-anticipated road map outlining plans to speed up the U.S. payment system will call for the creation of several industry-led task forces and recommend building a new infrastructure to facilitate real-time payments.

The payments company and big-bank trade group plans to create a ubiquitous, real-time payment system over the coming years, supplementing the push for same-day settlement of ACH transactions.

Some customers have reported double charging, others that their bank isn’t supported as promised. But some glitches are inevitable with a new service and processors say on the whole, the rollout has been relatively smooth.

Even though Apple has more than 500 banks lined up to support Apple Pay, including heavyweights like Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, some bank executives are taking a decidedly defensive stance.

Apple Pay is a watershed moment that will do more to stimulate mobile commerce than the sum of all previous efforts. But it also has an impact on branding that should make it part of a broader mobile menu for banks and retailers.

To win over younger customers, banks must offer free products that work straight out of the box, while also reducing red tape. To hire the best millennial-generation employees, banks need to appeal to younger workers' global values.