Bank technology

Social engineering attacks — also known as phishing and spear-phishing — are on the rise against banks and their corporate customers. The stakes are high and rising for both.

The bank-led clearXchange payment consortium that launched last year has put its payment network in production.

As the card associations force merchants to accept EMV cards, merchant terminal providers stand to benefit from a flurry of hardware upgrades.

A European Union court Thursday rejected a legal challenge by MasterCard Inc. (MA) of a 2007 European Union ruling over its fees, in a case seen as a key test on the levies card companies can impose in Europe.

Bank has been adding 43,000 new active mobile customers a week.

New products are making paperless account openings and loans possible via tablets.

Target has once again proven to be a breeding ground for payment innovation. The retail giant, which gave an early boost to the Starbucks mobile payment app and the American Express low-fee prepaid card, has given shopkick the go-ahead for a nationwide rollout of the vendor's mobile rewards system at its stores.

A TowerGroup analyst has strong words for banks reluctant to get involved in mobile payment initiatives.

The payment processor wants to grow through acquisition and work directly with merchants.

Most banks don't have the IT infrastructure to support the flood of payments data that will come with mobile payments, analyst Brian Riley warned at a conference today.

Following the resignation of CEO Lazaro Campos, SWIFT quickly sought to provide assurance that its broad plan to expand into new markets, tap new technology and create collaborative venues for members to better understand standards would not be interrupted.

New cloud security software designed to let companies offer employees single sign-on for all the web applications they use, and supports "bring your own device."

Last week, we witnessed the largest initial public offering of a technology company in U.S. history — a company that offers its main service for free, lives entirely on the internet, and is run by a 28-year-old. The euro fell into deeper jeopardy, not merely because of news from the debt markets and at the ballot box, but because Greek and Spanish borrowers reacted to that news in real time, withdrawing much of their euro-denominated savings from domestic banks. And a $2 billion bank loss, based on computer-driven and model-based decision making, almost instantaneously impacted policy discussions and market movements, even before facts became clear.

The mortgage software provider is branching out into other types of consumer loans for the first time.

Hans Morris, who left Visa in 2009 and joined private-equity firm General Atlantic, shared his payments investing philosophy with bankers and former colleagues on Monday night.

Zynga's social games — especially its hit Facebook game FarmVille — are a big deal in digital payments. Its games are the key to the success of Facebook Credits, and they may provide a similar boost to American Express' Serve.

WattzOn has developed a platform that analyzes users' utility bills to identify savings opportunities. It's pitching it to banks as a way to cross-sell loan products.

Senior bank executives and TowerGroup analysts, as well as our own Sean Sposito, are headed to Boston to hash out ideas for how banks can modernize legacy systems, create useful tablet apps, deal with new regulations and generally, stay alive.

Phishing and spear-phishing attacks have gotten more subtle and sophisticated. An expert provides examples of the latest episodes and advice for banks on how to protect themselves.

CFE has embarked on a two-year core product that will enable developers to mix and match programs written in different languages.