Bank technology

White House officials have approached American Express Co. (AXP) Chief Executive Officer Kenneth Chenault about joining President Barack Obama's second-term administration, possibly as Treasury secretary.

People widely use Google when house shopping, but a U.K. researcher says Google's own foray into mortgage comparison shopping, which has struggled in the U.S., faces an uphill battle because of how the search engine's brand is viewed by consumers.

Payments upstarts like Dwolla and Chirpify are aiming to capitalize on social media's popularity. But the question remains whether consumers will flock to a system that lets the world know what they're buying.

Fulton Financial has agreed to sell a payments business to Canadian group.

The Izz ad-Din al Qassam Cyber Fighters Group vows to continue its distributed denial of service attacks until YouTube removes an anti-Muslim video from its site.

Creative Mobile Technologies has sued the San Jose, Calif., point-of-sale terminal maker for more than $250 million. The company claims VeriFone breached an agreement over placing ad on in-taxi screens in New York.

Umpqua Bank has lured a veteran executive from First Horizon National Corporation (FHN) to lead its efforts to improve customers' experiences.

Mobile banking is off to a fast start at American Savings Bank in Honolulu. Next, the bank plans to deploy mobile customer relationship management.

An ample supply of skilled workers and other factors will encourage banks to continue bringing tech jobs back to the U.S. next year, says Harley Lippman of Genesis10, an IT consulting, staffing and domestic outsourcing firm.

First Bank & Trust in Brookings, S.D., has agreed to buy a prepaid card portfolio from Inter National Bank in McAllen, Texas. First Bank did not disclose the price it will pay for the $21 million portfolio.

U.S. Bancorp released on Saturday a new mobile app designed for its prepaid customers.

In the past, bank investment aimed at gaining a proprietary edge through new methods of consumer payment has consistently been poorly rewarded. Expect another repeat.

Know where - and when - your bank's target audience goes online for information and social interaction. It’s better to have just two social media channels that are well-supported than five left unattended.

Some are in new roles, some taking their banks in new directions and others most definitely on the hot seat. All eyes will be on these chief executives in the year ahead.

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Security firm says it has vetted the threat of a Russian hacking scheme and found it to be real.

VeriFone is backing away from the direct-to-merchant sales strategy of its Square-competitor SAIL, no longer willing to play catch-up to Square's early jump on the market.

HSBC will undertake a review and correction of policies that could cost nearly $1 billion. It's already increased spending on anti-money-laundering technology 900%.

Shea to succeed Kurt Woetzel, who will run a global collateral services unit.

Rather than invest heavily in one big risky project, banks should concentrate on many small innovations, beta test them and invest where customer feedback is positive.