Tellers at KEMBA Financial CU here feel more comfortable accepting checks, thanks to a new tool that simultaneously identifies counterfeits and closed or NSF accounts.

FITCHBURG, Mass.-CIO David Thibodeau wants to be a credit union CEO someday.

EMV chip cards have slowed fraudsters in their tracks in Western Europe, but as the security technology debuts in the U.S. payments market, not all credit unions are convinced that chip-and-PIN will pay off.

Place your bets on mobile banking in 2012.

Credit unions should intensify the move to mobile in 2012, making sure that people are able to open multiple accounts from any mobile device.

Five credit unions, ranging in assets from $30 million to $4 billion, have selected VSoft's VServe to handle their check processing.

Credit union systems aren't sufficiently "open," suggested members of the CUNA Technology Council (CTC) Executive Committee during a Credit Union Journal "Look Ahead 2012" roundtable."

Beware the community banks and credit unions that have begun to develop relationships with small businesses, said Sam Kilmer, VP-market development at Harland Financial Solutions here."

EMV cards are allowing UNFCU here to take a "less aggressive stance" on risk compared to magnetic strip cards, according to Merrill Halpern, AVP-card service.

Michigan First CU here has used the integrated TrueChecks since September and has avoided $50,000 in potential check loss, according to Jeff Rolph, director, risk management, at the $640-million CU.

Workflows are the satisfying conclusion to a long journey that began with a paperless project at Alliant CU here, said Heather Lally, senior manager, business process improvement.

CIO Jim Morrell is an aspiring CEO. Morrell, CIO and SVP-support services at $443-million iQ CU here, said he believes that CIOs will be even more attractive CEO candidates once the economy recovers.

Several major cities around the globe have been exposed to contactless-payment methods with cards or mobile phones, but Barcelona, Spain, soon may become the first city in which contactless is the dominant form of payment.

A new mobile-commerce wallet from payment-processor Apriva LLC could go a long way toward helping merchants decide whether investing in new mobile-payment hardware is worth the cost.

Green Dot Corp. has been busy lately, closing out its long-awaited and controversial $15.7 million purchase of Bonneville Bancorp and plotting a customer acquisition initiative.

An estimated 1.9 million homes entered the foreclosure process in 2011, the lowest mark since 2007 when the recession began, according to a report by the foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc.

As European banks continue to establish standards for a Single Euro Payments Area, not nearly as much attention has focused on a similar process for ecommerce or mobile payments in the euro zone.

The battle over which hardware should support contactless mobile payments is by no means over. Although telecommunication companies have thrown their weight behind SIM cards, the competing microSD chip is not dead yet.

Credit card users have been unusually diligent in paying off their bills recently in the wake of the financial crisis. Their discipline slipped a bit late last year, however, which led revolving credit to post a surprise jump in November.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described GlobalBay, which is software used for a hardware attachment for the Apple Inc. iPad.