Bank technology

Benjamin Lawsky, New York's financial regulator, today said that the state will propose regulations for oversight of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin this year.

The Minneapolis bank has found a novel way to persuade depositors to try online bill pay -- a service known to discourage customers from moving accounts but that banks nationwide are struggling to get more accountholders to use.

Banks and others have been rolling out new technologies and updated features in recent weeks that are designed to improve customer satisfaction. Following are five ways banks are aiming to use software upgrades to delight customers in major and minor ways.

Many community bankers are said to have gained confidence from the fact that they have made it this far under adverse conditions.

Authorities arrested the former CEO of a defunct Bitcoin exchange company on charges of conspiring to launder more than $1 million for users of the online drug market Silk Road.

Payment processor First Data has agreed to pay JPMorgan Chase (JPM) millions of dollars in order to settle a hiring dispute, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

Data breaches may be impossible to prevent, but there are ways to block card fraud from following. Andy Mattes, chief executive of ATM manufacturer Diebold, shares his views on how to secure ATMs and POS terminals.

Federal legislation is needed to enhance cyber-threat information sharing so that good-faith responsive actions and information sharing will not trigger legal liability.

Michaels is investigating a possible data security attack, CEO Chuck Rubin said in a letter to customers.

Predictions of marauding hackers are overblown, but banks do have good reason to beef up security on their Windows XP ATMs before Microsoft drops support for the operating system in April.

CEO Gary Crosby believes new technology will help the Buffalo, N.Y., company generate revenue more in line with being a large financial institution. But his $250 million investment pledge didn't sit well with investors who were hoping for cost-cutting.

Citibank is upgrading its ATM software in a bid to make the customer experience consistent across all digital touch points and to quicken the time to execute transactions on the channel.

The partnership positions the bank to acquire customers quickly by distributing its new Mobile Money prepaid card and associated mobile app at T-Mobile's physical stores and websites and through aggressive carrier-branded marketing campaigns.

First Niagara Financial Group (FNFG) in Buffalo, N.Y., met quarterly estimates and announced a plan to invest heavily in technological improvements as it moves beyond its recent phase of rapid growth.

Neiman Marcus Group Ltd., the luxury retailer, said about 1.1 million credit cards may have been compromised in a data breach that occurred last year.

Banks and credit unions are outperforming retailers in the war against credit card fraud, according to a new survey from Javelin Strategy & Research.

Paydiant has received a patent for technology that lets consumers withdraw cash from ATMs using their smartphones, a feature that it says should appeal to banks.

The Target and Neiman Marcus breaches have reignited data security as an issue on Capitol Hill, but many hurdles still stand in the way of legislation.

Financial institutions that can figure out how to couple an efficient and optimized loan process with personalized service will win in the future.

The massive Target data breach has reignited the debate over whether banks should do more to improve the security of the cards they issue in the United States. American Banker editors discuss why financial companies have been reluctant to upgrade their magnetic-stripe cards to the more secure chip-and-PIN cards used internationally, and what — if anything — the Target breach changes.