Bank technology

Visa Inc. has joined the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance's board of directors to help develop and deploy stronger online authentication standards.

There are a lot of great programs aimed at helping low-income people improve their financial circumstances. One problem: figuring out how to connect with them in the first place.

The Banking Industry Architecture Network, a standards group that promotes the use of services-oriented architecture among banks, today announced the addition of two U.S.-based members.

After dropping its first "pop up" branch in Atlanta less than a year ago, PNC Bank has opened a second in Chicago's Congress Plaza.

Heritage Bank in Australia recently teamed up with Japanese clothing manufacturer MJ Bale to do something unexpected: thread its contactless payment chip and antenna into a dozen suits.

The consensus is pretty unanimous (except among banks): the U.S. needs to speed up the processing of payments. What would a real-time system look like?

Fans of the San Jose Earthquakes beginning May 25 can pay for tickets, merchandise and concessions with Bitcoin, making the Major League Soccer team the first professional sports franchise to accept the virtual currency inside its stadium.

As mobile payments hit the mainstream, bankers should offer their customers a compelling proposition rather than wait for someone else to lure customers away.

Many Target Corp. customers are ready to forgive and forget.

Peer-to-peer lenders, cryptocurrency services and providers of tech-based services for cash-heavy users are all out to syphon business away from mainstream banks. The challenge for banks is figuring out if the threats are legitimate — then trying to decide whether to beat them or join them.

State regulators quizzed bankers and payments executives about the benefits and risks associated with improvements to the payments system, including same-day transactions. The industry officials assured them the new system would be secure — though they were short on details.

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

Barclays PLC (Barclays) will give London cash machines a makeover designed to honor the Pride in London lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender festival next month.

The promise of Bitcoin is to never have to trust anyone, but one of the field's most prominent startups wants to let its users reach out and touch someone.

Using new technology from Salesforce, the Boston bank is arming staffers with real-time customer data in a bid to increase wallet share, speed up decisions and help it handle problems quickly and efficiently.

Regulators are now demanding every last detail to be put in writing; the upshot is that banks may be forced to cut ties with vendors that can't meet all requirements. Still, experts say more ironclad language is ultimately good for banks because it gives them protections they haven't always had.

Fiserv (FISV), a financial technology firm Brookfield, Wis., announced Wednesday that it received a new patent for "a customer value optimization process" in its Predictive Scores solution.

Banco Santander Mexico now authenticates customers with their voice when they call the bank's automated phone system.

By strengthening direct consumer oversight, Bitcoin may shift consumer protection from law and regulation to reputation and trust, and even to mathematical proof of good service.

Executives at processor Total System Services can't predict which of the many existing mobile payments technologies will dominate the payments landscape of the future, but they plan to aggressively go after the processing business that follows.