Bank technology

As Chris Larsen steps aside as Prosper's CEO, the company — and the rest of the peer-to-peer lending industry Larsen helped create — has the opportunity to change its course and possibly even merge with one of the very banks it originally sought to displace.

VSoft announced Monday that Texas Trust Credit Union has agreed to use the vendor's remote deposit capture technology for its branch offices, online banking and automated teller machines.

IMGCAP(1)]

Critics say branches are expensive and losing customers, but bankers this week rallied in defense of their brick-and-mortar locations, even as they acknowledged that branches are losing some ground to mobile and online banking.

Microsoft-sponsored IDC research projects that cloud computing will create 14 million jobs worldwide by 2015. Yet an earlier Gartner study projects a loss of skilled jobs due to cloud-related technology. Who's right?

"The time when everybody and their dog could start a prepaid card company is coming to an end" and prepaid companies need to step up their use of technology to keep their customers, says Plastyc CEO Patrice Peyret.

Phishers turn the tables and mobile payments still scare consumers in the big security stories of the week through March 15.

The San Francisco online loan facilitator has named Dawn Lepore its interim chief executive. Larsen remains the chairman.

By using regularly updated profiles and business rules, the bank tailors new marketing campaigns on a daily basis. It's now working on a system that will provide near-real-time marketing based on current transactions.

Mobile payments are a hard sell, even for the dominant online alternative payment provider. PayPal's approach may seem like overkill, but the company says every payment counts when trying to convince consumers and small merchants to use handheld devices.

The next generation of consumers may forgo outdated tools like a computer mouse — a move that could have critical implications for bankers.

James Goodnight is a big-time executive who knows "big data" and all the buzzwords that preceded it — and, he says, so do bankers.

Intel instruments and FieldView software to give data center managers a realistic view of power usage across data centers to plan capacity and reconfigure server rooms to cut costs.

Columbus, Ga. Bank to upgrade 200 ATMs.

Reading Co-Operative Bank in Massachusetts is deploying a new core processing system by COCC to enable employees to deliver paperless, "high touch" services.

Discover Financial Services is the latest card network to announce a conversion plan for the secure EMV chip-card standard in the U.S.

VocaLink has agreed to offer its clients products from Clairmail.

A new product from vendor Norse is designed to choke off online card fraud before it becomes a transaction — and before competing services from the card networks can kick in.

LifeLock is betting that its acquisition of ID Analytics, which closed Wednesday, will help it better market its services to retail banks.

SAN FRANCISCO — An executive at eBay Inc.'s PayPal business who had served as finance chief at the company's former Internet calling unit Skype was struck and killed by a train in Silicon Valley on Friday.