Bank technology

In what it is calling a return to decades-old marketing tactics combined with new technology, credit-score giant FICO on Aug. 2 introduced a product designed to target credit card customer prospects more effectively in a sluggish market.

Global payments and commercial cards chief Wilco Dado juggles lots of challenges in building out a mobile strategy that battles new competitors, attempts to lure corporates and merchants, and leverages regs such as SEPA to build a multi-national payment infrastructure.

Verity Credit Union, the latest customer of mFoundry's mBanking solution, has come out with the news that 6% of its customers began using mobile banking within three months of the credit union offering the service.

Financial technology vendor S1 Corp.'s board of directors has rebuffed an unsolicited acquisition bid from rival ACI Worldwide Inc., signaling its commitment to an existing agreement it has to buy another competitor.

As social network-friendly CEO Mark Mullen plans to take the helm, the HSBC web bank's lab gives consumers a line into product development.

To help distribute its Serve digital payment and wallet service, American Express Co. on Aug. 1 announced a deal in which Verizon Wireless will integrate the platform into many of its mobile phones and tablets.

A network of shipping-container-based data centers will be located next to wind turbines and solar panels in upstate New York farmland in a project to determine the most cost-effective way to power the energy-hungry server racks.

The roster of big banks using Fiserv's online personal payments system is growing with the addition of BBVA Compass. The bank is using ZashPay to support its own service, Simple Personal Payments.

First Data said it would refer its bank and credit union clients to IronKey for software to protect users from fraud when banking online.

The top-ranked free iPad finance app in the Apple App Store in July was Bank of America's mobile banking app. The app received 3 3/4 stars, placing it on a level with Chase Mobile but below USAA App for iPad in terms of popularity.

Banks' risk management spending is up and chief risk officers are winning more clout in their risk organizations.

Lockheed's credit union aims services at its techie members around the globe, many of whom still mail in their checks and frequently contact the credit union by phone.

Mechanics Bank needed new positive pay software to work with its new cash management system. It didn't know it needed barcodes.

Most banks have upgraded their core systems on a piecemeal basis, bolting new modules on older base code. In some cases, these very enhancements have gotten in the way of a full core replacement.

Mike Kennedy is the driving force behind clearXchange, a bold moveby Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Chase to simplify peer-to-peerpayments. The partners hope the initiative will eventually helpbroaden financial relationships through increased consumercomfort with mobile as a payments channel. The same objective ison PayPal and Google's radar.

Most mobile payment technologies are designed to turn the mobile phone into a virtual wallet, capable of authenticating users, accessing data, delivering bills, presenting customers with options and actually executing payments. The following is a snapshot of some of the key technologies that turn mobile phones into payment machines.

As the economy strengthens, innovation is the only way to drive business growth and create new jobs.

Alerts are a high-impact piece of a bank's outreach to consumers, if they are executed properly. Expanding into new channels makes that tough.

CFOs are making more IT investment decisions then ever. But CIOs canreassert themselves.

Managing their own finances online and iPad-like devices are both popular with consumers.