Bank technology

In a mash-up of online banking, call center customer support and old-fashioned branch visits, Regions Bank is providing customers a web tool to schedule live meetings with its bankers.

Fidelity National Financial has closed on its purchase of Lender Processing Services, a provider of mortgage and consumer loan processing services and technology, FNF said in a press release Thursday evening.

Square 1 Bank in Durham, N.C., has bought Sand Hill Finance, a finance company based in the Silicon Valley.

Alabama State Employees Credit Union has filed the first class action lawsuit by a financial services company against Target Corp. over costs from the massive card security data breach the retailer suffered from Black Friday to mid-December.

The telecom company, like its rival Verizon, would like banks to use its network for mobile banking services such as identity verification. And in a surprising vision, it sees the major carriers all working together one day to provide joint mobile services.

The virtual currency has the potential to serve as collateral for loans, but creditors are likely more concerned with restricting borrowers’ Bitcoin use due to the regulatory uncertainty, irreversible payments, volatile exchange rates and the system’s anonymity.

A mentoring approach, like the one BNP Paribas' L'Atelier unit takes with technology startups, can give banks a lead on innovative ideas without the risk of a capital investment

Banks have an opportunity to manage consumers' login credentials for financial and government websites, just like in Canada.

Embarcadero Technologies' Henry Olson on the metadata imperative.

Google Wallet users can now activate the accompanying plastic Google Wallet card through the mobile app, a process that will become increasingly common as mobile payments advance, experts say.

Optimize Capital Markets has created a portal to automate capitalization deals of $2 million to $20 million. But along the way, it has found investors are not willing to part with their money in a completely automated way.

New Year's Eve is a time for reflecting on what the heck happened in the last 12 months -- even on Twitter.

The massive Target card data breach has members of Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union viewing the credit union's Facebook page in record numbers.

A Massachusetts community bank and a payment and banking applications provider have teamed up to capitalize on an Obamacare-assisted trend: the growing health care savings account market.

The financial services industry could saving $8 to $12 billion a year through the use of voice interaction, one consultant estimates.

A compilation of the year's favorite stories, as selected by the people who assigned and edited them. Picks exclude items that appear among Top Stories of 2013, as measured by audience size.

Compliance issues and regulatory worries can prevent many banks from embracing much new technology internally - especially when it comes to the tricky waters of social media like Twitter. Frank Sorrentino III, CEO of the New Jersey community bank ConnectOne, discusses why he and his bank are so active on Twitter, and why other bankers shouldn't let worries about compliance block them from being innovative.

We revisit some of the best comments readers posted to AmericanBanker.com and BankThink.com in 2013.

An American Banker poll finds that only 10% of financial institution executives say reissuing cards is too expensive and inconvenient.

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