ELKRIDGE, Md. – CRI Solutions has formed a new strategic partnership with Wycom Systems, Inc., a provider of solutions that improve check, receipt and document processing for businesses and financial institutions.

Hoping to cut its payment card acceptance costs, Royal Dutch Shell PLC in January last year launched its own debit card after learning a $20 purchase settled over the automated clearinghouse system would cost the petroleum company about 60% less to accept than traditional credit cards. Thus far, the company says, the product has exceeded expectations.

OLYMPIA, Wash.-A new law signed by Gov. Christine Gregoire will encourage financial institutions to take extraordinary measures to protect consumers from identity theft and financial fraud, according to the Washington CU League.

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Oita Prefecture, a jurisdiction located on Kyushu Island of southern Japan, plans to roll out a contactless payment card for its bus transport service in the cities of Beppu and Oita.

DENVER – Bellco CU yesterday said it has implemented CO-OP ATM Check Imaging from CO-OP Financial Services in its 50 ATMs.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Credit union executives now can get real time news from NCUA on Twitter.

How important is innovation to the business of banking today? The government appears to believe that financial innovations are at least partly to blame for the recent economic crisis, and to some degree this is true. Were it not for powerful secondary markets and instruments like mortgage-backed securities and CDOs, we may well have avoided the real estate bubble in the first place, leaving nothing to burst.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Tech CU is providing its members with an enhanced list of methods to prevent being the victims of fraud through mobile banking.

TUKWILA, Wash. – BECU introduced a new person-to-person money transfer service known as Popmoney by CashEdge.

Arkansans can now make payments to the state government over their mobile phones.

Collections management is the forgotten technology in good times. Today the financial sector is faced with higher than normal delinquency rates, and those rates are still climbing.

Most Americans do not realize just how close the U.S. banking system came to collapsing in the fourth quarter of 2008, Kevin Blakely, chief risk officer at Huntington Bancshares Incorporated, said Monday during a speech at the National Collections & Credit Risk Conference in Miami.

JOPLIN, Mo. – Great Plains FCU yesterday said it has introduced a new online brand with a website designed by T8 Webware.

When The Fortunate Cup Coffee Cafe Inc. began accepting a new form of mobile payments last week, it also began to brew up more business for the bank that made it possible.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas-One sure way to get good marks on your mobile banking application is to rate it yourself, much as Firstmark CU here has done, awarding itself five out of five "stars" for its locator iPhone application at the Apple App Store.

KOKOMO, Ind.-Mortgage loan volume doubled last year at $175-million Solidarity Community FCU here, thanks to an online mortgage-application platform. Making the news even better: borrower credit was of "wonderful caliber."

SAN JOSE, Calif.-Even with an average user-rating of 2.5 out of 5 stars, Technology CU's iPhone application has given the CU something to brag about: the iPhone app is bolstering mobile banking usage.

CHARLESON, W.V.-Perhaps the most innovative CU iPhone app comes from $25-million WV United FCU in Charleston, W.V. Nearly 40 members are using the CU's mobile deposit capture application.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.-Lakes Area CU first stepped foot on the Internet more than eight years ago. Since then, the CU's "brochure-ware" has evolved into a Flash-driven, mobile-optimized virtual branch that soon will feature person-to-person payments.