Bank technology

"Cold storage" of cryptographic private keys, private theft insurance, and audited full reserves can prevent another Mt. Gox-like debacle, says Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Bitcoin startup Circle Internet Financial.

Supervalu Inc., a U.S. supermarket chain concentrated in the Midwest, suffered a data breach that exposed customers' payment-card information, marking the latest hacker attack on the retail industry.

Square, which has been scrambling to add fee-based services to pad the revenue it gets from mobile payments, faces a formidable new challenge in Amazon's Local Register.

Fintech startups claim to out-innovate banks. But financial institutions sometimes break new ground. Here are five examples of banks that are testing and launching mobile app features capable of much more than showing an account balance.

The launch of Visa Checkout has attracted more interest from consumers than the launch of its earlier digital wallet incarnation, V.me, according to one of its first bank partners: PNC Bank.

As banks flee the deposit advance business, startups are offering services that let consumers name their payday and collect what they have earned up to that point, regardless of the day of the week.

TD Bank has added mobile check deposit for its business customers.

The ATM Industry Association has published new international recommendations on ways to make using ATMs feel more like interacting on smartphones and tablets.

Customer relationship management technology and new regulations require lenders and loan officers to re-evaluate how they manage the ownership and use of lead sheets.

Social media won't drive profits until banks figure out how to direct traffic to their blog and provide the kind of emotional content that people like to share, writes John Siracusa.

Amazon.com Inc. has launched a Square-like mobile card reader called Amazon Local Register, charging early adopters just 1.75% per swipe until the end of 2015.

SunTrust Banks has appointed Paul Garcia, a former chairman and chief executive of Global Payments, to its board.

Diebold, best known as an ATM manufacturer, is rebranding and diversifying itself and promoting its consulting services on a popular banking topic: how to redefine branches as sales and service hubs.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has proposed forcing banks to identify those standing behind legal entity accounts, but also made a slew of accommodations meant to make the rule more palatable.

Bank Leumi is holding a two-day hackathon competition that is expected to welcome more than 100 technology developers, programmers, entrepreneurs and designers.

Financial institutions are on the lookout for spamming and spear phishing following news that a gang of Russian hackers stole 1.2 billion sets of usernames and passwords. But they're taking the reports with a grain of salt.

Misys, the British financial industry software provider, has acquired Custom Credit Systems in Richardson, Texas, which specializes in commercial lending technology, for an undisclosed price.

The Heartbleed bug alerted banks to their own vulnerabilities and made them realize that they have heightened responsibilities toward customers when it comes to communicating security concerns, according to Joram Borenstein of NICE Actimize.

The mobile-centric consumer lender is turning to MoneyGram's vast retail network in an effort to reach borrowers who prefer to use cash. The partnership applies to borrowers in 15 states, but LendUp hopes to partner with a bank to take its service nationwide.

Some retailers like Disney are achieving high adoption of their wearable apps. Banks are a bit behind, but a few are piloting Google Glass and smartwatch banking apps.