Bank technology

Beginning Oct. 31, 2012, issuers, merchants and acquirers in Canada that support American Express Co. cards will become liable for fraudulent transactions initiated with magnetic stripe cards when the fraud would have been averted by cards meeting the EMV Integrated Circuit Card Specifications, Amex Canada said.

A federal judge dismissed a shareholder lawsuit against VeriFone Systems Inc., the company announced Friday.

Blackhawk Network has rebranded its reloadable prepaid debit products and cut many of its fees in an effort to increase market share.

A Rhode Island company called Swipely has launched a social spending website of the same name.

Heartland Bank of Gowrie, Iowa, has agreed to use check processing software from Integrated Bank Technology Inc.

Unregulated mobile payments systems could put consumers at risk for fraud, according to Consumers Union.

First Data Corp. has developed a debit card antifraud system that uses contactless chips to produce unique, one-time card numbers for use at the point of sale.

While texting and SMS messaging may not appear serious or formal, there is a very serious side to using this form of engagement.

There are plenty of companies now with tools that let people slice and dice their own financial data, but the updated Bundle application set to go live Friday will also let users compare their own spending habits against their peers'.

A long-planned payments pilot program allowing banks to convert low-value checks to automated clearing house transactions is moving forward, but some industry experts say the initiative may be past its prime.

Fiserv Inc. is offering a mobile remote deposit service, a move that could rapidly expand the adoption of a technology that is becoming a must-have feature at many banks.

There's something phish-y about Mary; debunking security myths surrounding Apple's iTunes; caveat to merchants: watch how much you encrypt; spike in mortgage fraud; and more.

The growing use of smartphones by consumers to make purchases appears to be prompting small-business owners to follow suit.

The U.K. bank Barclays PLC confirmed that customers were unable to gain access to their accounts and withdraw money for a time Saturday after cash machines went down during an outage.

For the underbanked, who use the service with prepaid cards, the attraction of mobile banking lies in its price, ease-of-access and portability, compared to other means of going online.

Heartland Bank of Somers, Iowa, said it would use software from Integrated Bank Technology Inc. to handle check images.

Growth in automated clearing house transactions slowed in the second quarter, but the dollar value of those transactions increased slightly.

Checks may be getting an extended life now that financial institutions are developing and rolling out mobile remote deposit capture technology as part of their mobile banking applications, observers said.

Speculation that Apple Inc. plans to develop a payment-enabled iPhone increased with its hiring of mFoundry Inc. executive Benjamin Vigier.

Banks that leverage the new technology and the Nacha and the FBI guidelines will be able to avoid the risk of the ever-evolving threat of next-generation malware.