| Bank Systems & Technology: The Blog |  |
Featuring commentary from the editors of Bank Systems & Technology, plus Art Gillis!
Dot-Matrix Printers and the Sound of Security Risk
June 30, 2009 @ 01:39 PM | By Maria Bruno-Britz
Sometimes I just run across something that makes me go, “Hmm.” In this case, it was the editor’s note from a sister brand’s e-mail newsletter, Dr. Dobbs Update, which is produced by the makers of technology resource Dr. Dobbs.
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Consolidation of Bank Tech Companies Was Pretty Much a Non Event in 2008
June 30, 2009 @ 10:00 AM | By Art Gillis
Let the stats speak to you. For the past 16 years, vendor consolidation was the place to be if you enjoyed the dynamics of “Who do you work for today?” The leader was Fiserv with 152 acquisitions. The average during that period among all bank tech companies in Automation in Banking, was 23 per year. Last year there were nine. One year was even lower than that with seven.
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A Dose of Transparency Crucial to Rebuilding Bank Trust
June 29, 2009 @ 09:26 AM | By
By Ashok Vemuri, Infosys Technologies
Though you wouldn’t know it from reading today’s headlines, America’s banking history is one littered with a number of principled and driven personalities who went to any length to maintain the public’s faith in the financial system as a whole. In October of 1907, John Pierpont Morgan rounded up a consortium of his contemporaries to stem a potentially disastrous run on the Trust Company of America. Personal wealth was pledged, handshake agreements were made and kept, and in the end confidence in the United States’ banking system was restored—at least for the time being.
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Mobile Financial Services Climbing Out of the Crisis Mire
June 26, 2009 @ 10:22 AM | By Maria Bruno-Britz
Yesterday, I was took part in a panel discussion hosted by InformationWeek, BS&T’s sister publication, about mobile banking and payments. Along with myself were Doug Brown, Bank of America’s SVP, mobile product development; Charles Landry, VP and general manager with VeriSign, the event’s sponsor; and Lori Beck, director, product management, with Western Union.
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Want to Know What’s Hot in Bank Tech? Ask a Broad Range of Unrelated People
June 23, 2009 @ 09:28 AM | By Art Gillis
Section 3 of my report, Automation in Banking, is reserved for anything outside the box. Thirty-two other sections are inside the box and I don’t apologize for that. There are still conventional things people want to know about bank IT that are very structured and good. I update the contents of the proverbial box every year and no one complains, especially about the 98 exhibits where numbers change and validate a situation more than words can.
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Addressing Issues Raised in FFIEC’s Risk Management of Remote Deposit Capture
June 22, 2009 @ 09:23 AM | By
By Bruce Rennecker, VP, Product Management, Digital Check
In order to help financial institutions mitigate the risks of remote deposit capture, the Federal Financial Institution Examination Council released guidelines in January to highlight possible problem areas that need to be addressed.
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Burden of Responsibility for New Era Reg Compliance Ultimately Will Fall on IT
June 18, 2009 @ 12:50 PM | By
President Obama’s proposals for the reform of financial services regulation are wide-ranging. Even if only partially enacted, they will have far-reaching impacts to the way financial services organizations of all types conduct business in the long term. As expected, they have been instantly attacked from the right and the left, and we have already seen declarations of war from industry organizations.
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77% of the Top 50 U.S. Banks Need Help, and I’m Not Talking TARP
June 16, 2009 @ 09:26 AM | By Art Gillis
It has been 36 years since I had a corporate-type job. I’m now ready to get back into the labor force because the timing is perfect and the need at the top 50 is acute. After living with 45-year-old technologies, large banks have to face the reality of a much-changed world of banking requiring new tech innovations. I’m going to tackle that problem. I have convinced my wife that our CPA will take care of all household business matters and her financial security is intact. But the deal includes no husband for a while. I’ll be very busy for the next five years.
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Proposed Regulatory Overhaul May Not Quite Be Done Deal
June 15, 2009 @ 10:33 AM | By Maria Bruno-Britz
The Obama administration finally made public details of its proposed financial regulation overhaul plan. It might not call for the single “super regulator” that the industry has been talking about for months, but it does seek to consolidate and augment the powers of current regulatory agencies, especially the Federal Reserve. It sounds like the goal will be to ensure there is just enough overlap between agencies to avoid any gaps in supervision that could possibly lead us to another economic crisis. If the administration gets its way, a new consumer watchdog agency would be established and the Fed would have more sweeping powers of control over the largest financial institutions.
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Taking an Integrated View of Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC), Processes and IT
June 15, 2009 @ 09:37 AM | By
Information technology is a fundamental business enabler in today’s financial services sector. Now more than ever, financial institutions are looking to IT solutions to help them address fundamental business challenges — from delivering more personalized customer service to managing risk to improving operational efficiency. The now inextricable link between IT and business operations has fueled a compelling need for FIs to implement comprehensive and holistic IT governance, risk and compliance (GRC) strategies.
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As Personal Finance Tools Gain Popularity, Where’s Money Going?
June 12, 2009 @ 10:09 AM | By Maria Bruno-Britz
The news of Microsoft’s dropping its Money software offering really caught my attention. The company says that growing competition from financial institutions and a shift in the way people manage their finances were the main reasons for the move.
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Six Major Challenges for Bank Tech Companies
June 08, 2009 @ 11:06 AM | By Art Gillis
Look again, folks, it’s not just the economy that’s hurting bank tech companies. The economy will recover, but five other challenges linger for which Ben Bernanke cannot project an end date.
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ATM Sourcing Strategies: Get What You Pay For
June 08, 2009 @ 10:27 AM | By
In today’s retail banking landscape, the role of the ATM can vary from delivering basic “cash-and-dash” functionality to conducting a variety of sophisticated, value-added transactions.
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Solid State Drives Offer Quantum Leaps in Performance for Banks
June 02, 2009 @ 03:42 PM | By
By John Cagle, HP
Solid state technology, such as flash-memory, is a type of storage with no moving parts. When used as a disk drive, it provides a more reliable and higher performing alternative to traditional hard disk drives. Solid state drives (SSDs) have been in use for several years in laptops and, until recently, were associated primarily with consumer products and USB storage devices. However, solid state storage is taking a more prominent role in the enterprise computing market as the cost gap narrows between SSDs and hard drives, and companies demand higher performing systems.
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A College Junior Is the Best Person to Create a Community Bank’s Strategic Plan
June 01, 2009 @ 03:49 PM | By Art Gillis
Relax you Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, Wharton, Sloan, Booth, Haas, Tuck, Columbia and Yale MBAs. You can’t even get a job after all you’ve learned, which means it’s not about you. It’s the economy, genius.
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Workforce Optimization: Using the Right Employees at the Right Time
June 01, 2009 @ 09:50 AM | By
We’ve all had the experience. You dash into the branch for a quick transaction, but end up standing in a long line while one teller serves customers, another works away in her station not making eye contact, and several windows sit vacant. It’s equally frustrating to contact the bank by phone, only to be placed on interminable hold.
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Your Card Data MAY have been Compromised
May 27, 2009 @ 02:07 PM | By Maria Bruno-Britz
Well, I guess there's a first time for everything. I was just informed by my very large credit card company that my card data MAY have been compromised.
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Reducing Risk and Seizing Revenue Streams With Electronic Invoicing
May 27, 2009 @ 09:25 AM | By
With near failures and mega-mergers around almost every corner, the banking industry is experiencing unprecedented change. With much of their focus on achieving cost efficiencies and effective resource utilization, banks may be losing sight of a key issue – finding ways to build and retain customers to remain profitable. One way to achieve this balance is to deliver new services that enable banks to simultaneously develop new revenue streams while deepening the relationship with the customer.
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What Some Consumers Thought of Their Banks’ Systems--16 Years Ago
May 22, 2009 @ 11:02 AM | By Art Gillis
Don’t stop reading yet just because 16 years in bank tech is like ancient history. This is entertainment because it happened in the Big Easy, pre Katrina, when hurricanes were treated like a mosquito bite. In my opinion, the survey results are just as true today as when I first did the exercise.
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For the Future of Globalization, Look to South Africa?
May 21, 2009 @ 11:13 AM | By Kathy Burger
If there is to be growth in the banking industry, it probably is going to depend largely on the ability of financial institutions to compete profitably and securely in emerging markets.
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The Definition of “Integration” in Bank Systems Depends on Who's Saying It
May 18, 2009 @ 11:25 AM | By Art Gillis
First, I am not trying to be an English teacher. I’m simply trying to clear the air about a most powerful word in the use of bank systems. Even Wikipedia didn’t get it right, or more accurately, didn’t define it completely. You decide.
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Using IT to Survive Mergers and Acquisitions in a Challenging Economy
May 18, 2009 @ 09:40 AM | By
Few industries have been affected more by today’s economic downturn than the financial industry. Many financial institutions have been forced into consolidations and mergers, requesting government assistance just to survive. They are pressured to show revenue increases and cost reductions almost immediately, and depend heavily on IT to meet these demands.
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Keeping Top Talent Amid Pay Restrictions a New Challenge for Banks
May 14, 2009 @ 09:59 AM | By Maria Bruno-Britz
With the news of further government intervention in banks’ compensation practices, banks might be left wondering how to keep their top performing employees while still remaining competitive against their adversaries in less regulated countries. The Wall Street Journal offers some ideas in the following video that could help banks entice good people to remain in financial services once the allure of big money disappears.
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Bank Tech Sector Still a Learning Process
May 11, 2009 @ 09:08 AM | By Art Gillis
I never thought I knew it all, and every day I realize how right I was. I just glanced at the first edition of Automation in Banking. If I compared it to the 2009 edition, it would look like a 1985 Oldsmobile—couldn’t compete and no longer available. I learned a lot in 24 years, but I’m still learning.
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In Turbulent Times, Take Stock of IT Staff
May 11, 2009 @ 08:50 AM | By
In today’s challenging market environment, it may be tempting to minimize investments in building and maintaining a strong IT workforce. But that would be a mistake. At a time when financial institutions are highly reliant on IT to be more efficient, IT employees are a critical workforce segment.
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How Quickly Do Banks Adopt Tech Innovations? Think Tortoise, Not Hare
May 05, 2009 @ 09:29 AM | By Art Gillis
In case I hurt anyone’s feelings who is impressed with the dynamics of our business, I offer the following actual, historical account of how it took a decade or more to move each new trend:
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Addressing the Rising Cost of Check Fraud
May 04, 2009 @ 10:40 AM | By
Despite of the steady decline in the general number of checks written annually, organizations still make 74 percent of their payments by check, according to some estimates. It is not news that check fraud is a prevailing form of fraud. Check fraud takes numerous forms, covering the gamut of illegal and/or deceptive practices from forgery to check kiting (drawing against balances credited to uncollected checks) to embezzlement. Signature forgery, counterfeit checks and physical alteration of the paper check itself are all prevalent methods of check fraud.
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