Bank technology

An international hackathon is helping Jorge Ruiz, Citibank's head of business development and digital banking for Latin America, keep the bank's apps fresh.

Peter Setaro, the chief information officer for First National Bank of the Gulf Coast, is stocking branches with free wifi and Kindles for customers to use.

BofI Holding (BOFI) in San Diego, the parent of BofI Federal Bank, is mourning the passing of Jerry F. Englert, a company founder and member of the board of directors.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Interpol and government agencies from several European countries reportedly have taken control of two computer networks allegedly used by hackers to steal banking information.

NCR Corporation (NCR) has launched tablet-based retail banking software designed to enable bank tellers to connect faster and in a more personalized way with customers.

Niti Badarinath is pushing new mobile banking and mobile wallet concepts to market at U.S. Bank with a sense of urgency: he knows customers want more.

Under Roy Malone's direction, Golden Pacific Bancorp last year introduced an online lending platform that vastly speeds up the approval process for borrowers seeking Small Business Administration loans ranging from $5,000 to $150,000.

Niti Badarinath is pushing new mobile banking and mobile wallet concepts to market at U.S. Bank with a sense of urgency: he knows customers want more. Badarinath and six other digital banking executives made it to our Digital Banker of the Year list by moving new features to market quickly, overcoming institutional fear and inertia.

Creating a more efficient way to do the same old thing isn't enough, says David Gerbino. Banks need to reconstruct some of their basic deposit products to truly innovate.

Younger customers are there for the taking should Amazon, Google and PayPal ever court them for banking services. Banks can shore up these consumers' loyalty by leveraging trust and data advantages.

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

Check's technology, with Intuit's marketing budget behind it, could shape consumers' expectations of bill pay through their financial institutions and inspire entrepreneurs to cook up similar software to disintermediate banks.

The Center for Financial Services Innovation has announced it will receive millions of dollars from JPMorgan Chase's philanthropy unit to launch a new division that builds on the work the association has been doing for 10 years: identifying financial problems and cultivating technology that is designed to solve issues plaguing the majority of Americans.

Thomson Reuters, Fidelity Investments and Amazon.com are jointly launching a program called Fintech Sandbox to support technology startups aiming to serve the financial services industry.

The financial industry should focus on creating new methods of identification, authentication and privacy protection that ward off fraud while keeping consumer inconvenience to a minimum.

Square, which built its business on the simplicity of its plug-in payment device, is piling on services that should make banks and other companies take notice.

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) of Cincinnati expects to report an $81 million gain in the second quarter after selling shares of payment process firm Vantiv (VNTV).

The Netherlands, birthplace of the world's first stock exchange and the pioneering Dutch East India Company, is now home to banks with an unusually open mind about bitcoin.

Chris Dancy, who has been designated the "world’s most connected human" and will be a keynote speaker at next week’s Digital Banking Summit, shares his thoughts on how banks can help their customers get value out of their own data, and where the line is between usefulness and creepiness.

Diebold Chief Innovation Offer Frank Natoli Jr. maps out what it will take to make biometrics a banking reality.