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Your source for the latest technology information of interest to community banks across America.

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March 10, 2014

Complimentary Webinar

The Check is NOT in the mail: Easy to use, cost effective payment collection tools that reduce delinquencies & offer customers multiple payment options

How many times have you heard delinquent customers say, "THE CHECK IS IN THE MAIL!"? If you are interested in learning how they were able to solve this time and money consuming issue you need to attend this informative webinar.


What You Will Learn:

• How any computer with Internet access can be used to accept payments by phone
• Emailing payment receipts to comply with NACHA rules
• Easy reporting tools to reconcile payments
• Charging convenience fees: Are you eligible?
• Easy website and IVR payments for 24/7 payment collection

Who Should Attend: Any community bank looking to reduce delinquent payments.
 

Date: Schedule a 30-minute live demonstration at your convenience!

To Register: http://www.banktt.com/webinars.htm  
 

Hardware News

Solid state drives (SSDs) are starting to catch up in size to traditional hard drives, which have reached a maximum capacity of 6TB. For example, OCZ Storage Solutions is offering a new line of SSDs that offer maximum storage capacity of 3.2TB. The Z-Drive 4500 SSDs also come in capacities of 800GB and 1.6TB. Unfortunately, SSD pricing remains high: the 3.2TB drive is priced at $6,533, 1.6TB at $3,806 and 800GB at $2,355. The company is offering a five year warranty with the new products.

Belkin has unveiled their new Secure Web Camera Adapter which they claim is the only solution available that enables the use of standard USB web cameras in computing environments where classified or sensitive information is presented. Security features include an anti-tampering mechanism in the outside packaging, one-time programmable (OTP) protected firmware, and complete isolation of the USB circuit from the computer.
 

Hardware Section Sponsored by
MVi

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Software Updates

With the April 8 support shutdown deadline for Windows XP on the near horizon, Microsoft has come out with a free edition of a software tool, created by Laplink, to help transfer a user's files and settings to another machine. The utility, dubbed PCMover Express for Windows XP, can be used to migrate user data - files, user profile information, and personal settings - across a network to a new PC. However it is important to note that the program doesn't support migration of actual installed applications.

SolarWinds announced further enhancements to their Network Performance Monitor (NPM) solution. SolarWinds NPM has added new baseline threshold calculating functionality, as well as support for LAN controllers and thin access points, monitoring for major routing protocols including OSPF and BGP, and a high-availability Failover Engine. SolarWinds NPM pricing starts at $2,675 and includes the first year of maintenance.

Software Section Sponsored by
Raddon Financial Group (RFG)

 

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ATMs/Kiosks

Many hundreds of thousands of ATMs - somewhere between 80 percent and 95 percent of all ATMs, depending on the source - are still running Windows XP. In terms of upgrading, there is very little mention of Windows 8, with Windows 7, not 8, dominating the conversation. The use of Linux is very limited, but there is an Indian ATM manufacturer, Vortex, that offers a low-power Linux based system called Ecoteller. The 2013 ATM Software Trends and Analysis report found little interest from ATM deployers in Linux: only 9 percent of respondents showed an interest in using a non-Microsoft operating system such as Linux.

In a move designed to prevent advanced threats and other forms of malware from executing on ATMs, Wontok has rolled out their new SafeCentral ATM solution. The Australian data security solution provider says that their platform provides a containerized environment to make each transaction safe. They state that it effectively creates a barricade against advanced threats, banking Trojans, botnets, zero-day exploits, and other malware.

ATMs/Kiosks Sponsored by
Heritage Industries

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Wireless World


MasterCard is adding in-app payment functionality to its MasterPass mobile platform. MasterPass allows consumers to store payment data in their devices and buy items with a tap on the display, and it supports numerous payment methods such as NFC (near field communication), QR (quick response) codes, and tags. The card giant also says that their in-app payments make it unnecessary to store payment card credentials across various mobile apps, which augments security.

Mobile payments are usually associated with small ticket items, but now consumers in the United Kingdom can to buy new home via their mobile phones. Recently, Barclay's Pingit mobile application, which is used to transfer money between individuals and business, was used by a homeowner to put down a $38,000 deposit on a property. Savills Auctions offers a QR code from within the Pingit app that permits potential homeowners the ability to quickly place a deposit on a home. The app will then show the full transaction details and once the customer selects OK, the money will be transferred in seconds.

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Security Section


DetectTA 2.0 from EasySolutions is designed to help banks comply with FFIEC rules for detecting suspicious transaction anomalies. The fraud prevention solution qualifies a transaction’s risk in real time based on a heuristic profile of the user’s behavior that the product is learning over time. The solution features an interactive dashboard which enables banks to centralize fraud investigation processes within DetectTA. 

Visa announced a new Prepaid Clearinghouse Service which they describe as "a centralized database that allows financial institutions, processors and prepaid program managers to share prepaid card data such as enrollments, load funding, suspected fraudulent information and previously reported fraud on existing card accounts." Reporting information into PCS will be required for all U.S. Visa-issuing financial institutions, yet PCS is capable of supporting multiple network-branded prepaid cards. All U.S. Visa prepaid issuing financial institutions will be required to report into PCS by June 2015.

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Leaders Roundtable

Security:

Addressing the Big 3: Compliance, Fraud & Cyber Security

Cyveillance
Cyveillance - http://www.cyveillance.com
Read Eric Olson's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/Cyveillance.pdf

 

D+H
D+H - http://www.dh.com
Read Jeff Marshall's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/D+H.pdf

 

DirectRM
DirectRM - http://www.directrm.com
Read Donald E. Malloy's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/DirectRM.pdf

 

Easy Solutions - http://www.easysol.net
Read Daniel Ingevaldson's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/EasySolutions.pdf

 

GMV
GMV - http://www.gmv.com
Read Andres Escobero's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/GMV.pdf

 

Horsetail
Horsetail Technologies - http://www.horsetailtech.com
Read Mark Berman's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/Horsetail.pdf
IMM
 
Integrated Media Management - http://www.immonline.com  
Read John A. Levy's comments:

 

Incapsula
Incapsula - http://www.incapsula.com
Read Marc Gaffan's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/Incapsula.pdf

 

LogRhythm
LogRhythm - http://www.logrhythm.com
Read Mike Reagan's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/LogRhythm.pdf

 

Mimecast
 
Mimecast - http://www.mimecast.com  
Read Mounil Patel's comments:

 

Onbase
Hyland Software - http://www.onbase.com
Read Steve Comer's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/Hyland.pdf

 

ProPay
ProPay - http://www.propay.com
Read Dr. Heather Mark's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/ProPay.pdf

 

RPost
RPost - http://www.rpost.com
Read Zafar Khan's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/RPost.pdf

 

SilverSky
SilverSky - http://www.silversky.com
Read Andrew Jaquith's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/SilverSky.pdf

 

TrustCC
TrustCC - http://www.trustcc.com
Read Andy Robbins' & Brandon Henry's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/TrustCC.pdf

 

Verafin
Verafin - http://www.verafin.com
Read Brendan Brothers' comments:
http://www.banktt.com/Verafin.pdf

 

Wombat Security Technologies
Wombat Security Technologies - http://www.wombatsecurity.com
Read Joe Ferrara's comments:
http://www.banktt.com/Wombat.pdf

 

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Technology and Marketing

According to a new Synergistics study, alternative financial services providers are increasingly popular with a growing number of college students and recent graduates. Their recent "Evaluating the Financial Needs of Students" survey reveals that:

- four in ten use convenience stores for activities such as cashing checks or buying money orders 

- three in ten have used check cashing centers

- one in five frequent pawn shops

- one in six have gotten a short term loan from payday lenders

- one in eight have turned to car title lenders

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Online Banking/E-Commerce/Website Design


With the increasing popularity of mobile and online banking options, personal check usage continues to fall. In the latest GOBankingRates survey, which asked how often banking customers wrote personal checks, the most common response was “never” (37%), followed by “several times a month” (25%), “a few times a year” (20%) and “once a month” (16%). Here are some more highlights of the survey:

• The youngest demographic polled, 18-24, were most likely to never write checks.

• Older respondents were more likely to write checks several times a month than younger respondents.

• Men were more likely to never write checks than women.

• Every single respondent polled making $150,000 and up reported writing checks several times a month.

Prepaid cards are a costly substitute for traditional financial institution accounts, according to the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs. A spokesperson was quoted as saying "Massachusetts consumers can save hundreds of dollars each year by avoiding prepaid cards and opening a Basic Banking checking account." The survey examined 16 different purchasing and use-related fees for 11 randomly-selected prepaid cards.

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Internet Access

A content delivery network or content distribution network (CDN) is a large distributed system of servers deployed in multiple data centers across the Internet. The goal of a CDN is to serve content to end-users with high availability and high performance. A site visitor's proximity to the Web server can have a positive impact on the amount of time it takes to download content. Using a CDN for static resources can also increase the number of parallel downloads a browser can make. BootstrapCDN is a free and public content delivery network. Users of BootstrapCDN can load CSS, JavaScript and images remotely, from its servers. Bootstrap uses MaxCDN's global content delivery network, which makes websites using its service resilient to unexpected surges in web traffic.

AT&T has filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to trial an all-IP phone network in two cities. The trial is a step toward the company’s long term objective to eventually retire the legacy AT&T TDM network; AT&T hopes to make its transition to an all IP network by 2020. The telecom giant notes that more than 70 percent of residential consumers have abandoned legacy phone service choosing instead to go with wireless services or VoIP services.

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Call Centers

Many smaller contact centers focus their social media attention on Facebook and Twitter. However, as activities increase, social media monitoring without tools can become burdensome and time-consuming. Some organizations start with solutions like Hootsuite with only a few people in the organization monitoring Twitter and Facebook. From $8.95 per seat per month, you have the ability to see who replied to messages, assign cases to one another and collaborate on your responses.

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