Bank technology

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.

Just three months after acquiring digital banking startup Simple, BBVA Compass is continuing its digital self-improvement journey with the hire of two high-profile executives.

Manilla was a hit with technology critics and had a loyal base of customers, but what it really needed to gain widespread acceptance was a bank partner.

BitPay, an Atlanta-based company that processes payments in the digital currency bitcoin, said it secured $30 million in venture capital funding.

Connecticut's top banking regulator on Monday warned investors about the dangers of bitcoin.

FIS has launched a cloud-based, instant issuance system for EMV-chip cards.

Vantiv Inc., a provider of payment-processing services to retailers and financial institutions, is near a deal to acquire Mercury Payment Systems Inc. for about $1.65 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

SunTrust (STI) has opened a downtown Atlanta branch to test new bank technology concepts that could be used in other SunTrust branches nationwide.

FICO has added Solution Stack, cloud and on-premises software, to its Decision Management Platform.

A look at four financial technology startups reveals major trends in the industry. Mobile applications, digital currencies, small data and alternative lending are all heating up.

It's no longer enough to choose a vendor because it's a market leader. Regulators are now requiring banks to grade vendors based on the perceived risk to the bank if a vendor goes bust or can't do the job.

On Wednesday, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council announced plans for cybersecurity risk assessments of banks during a webinar.