Market Scan

American Payroll Association Announces 2008 Conference

The American Payroll Association (APA) announced that it will hold its 2008 annual conference on May 13-17 in Austin Texas.

Link:  http://www.americanpayroll.org/

Fifth Third and Revenue Management Solutions Offer Healthcare Lockbox

The July 20 edition of American Banker states that Fifth Third is using a system from Revenue Management Systems of Oklahoma City to convert EOB forms into electronic remittance advices (ANSI 835).  According to Raymond Dury, the bank's CIO, Fifth Third targets health care providers that do not have electronic connections with payers for the service.

Citibank and Obopay Offer Mobile Payment Service

Citibank and Obopay will pilot a new person-to-person mobile payment service with select Citibank customers in Boston in Chicago.  Trial participants must first add money to their Obopay account, then they can transfer money to other consumers.

Press Release, click here.

Commentary

Verizon and Obopay announced a similar pilot in June (click here).  A recent issue of Computerworld recently ranked dot-com "virtual money schemes" (e.g. Beenz and Flooz) among the top-10 technology flops of the past forty years.  Ultimately, consumers just used their credit cards for e-commerce, PayPal being the notable exception.  Consumer payment habits and preferences are deeply ingrained and notoriously difficult to change.  Credit cards and PayPal are likely to be the winners in mobile-commerce as well.

Bank of the West Picks RSA to Protect Consumers

Bank of the West has picked RSA Adaptive Authentication and eFraudNetwork to protect consumers customers of its online banking products.

According to RSA:

"RSA Adaptive Authentication for Web is engineered to analyze all online banking activities in real-time and calculate a risk-score for each. Using the risk score, the solution is designed to automatically invoke additional strong authentication methods in a transparent manner, such as secret questions or an automated ‘out-of-band’ phone call, for high-risk activities or for users that could not be authenticated easily. The transparent authentication relies on identifying the user’s device and considering it in the context of additional risk factors such as the user’s location or details of the specific activity. With RSA’s site-to-user authentication, users select a unique image and phrase. The image is then displayed at login to verify the official bank Web site before a password is entered.

Bank of the West has also become a member of the RSA eFraudNetwork community, the world’s most effective collaborative online anti-fraud network. With more than 50 large financial institutions and a multitude of smaller ones on the network, Bank of the West can benefit from immediate protection based on real-time online fraud data from financial institutions around the world."

For the full press release, click here.

TAWPI to Award J&B 2007 Hall of Fame Award

TAWPI will award J&B Software its 2007 Hall of Fame Award at its August Forum and Expo. 

"TAWPI is an international organization of information management professionals employing emerging technologies in remittance, mail automation, document and forms processing.  It grants its annual 'Hall of Fame Award' to one company that has made significant contributions towards the advancement of information capture and management technology."

J&B Software is a provider of remittance processing solutions.

Full press release, click here.

How will SEPA and the PSD Impact Corporates?

The Payments Podcast series (produced by Voices in Business and sponsored by Sun Microsystems) continues its look at the Single European Payments Area (SEPA) and the Payments Services Directive (PSD) with Dhiru Tanna, SVP Business Integration with Bank of America's Corporate Payments Group.  Mr. Tanna addresses the question, "how will SEPA and the PSD Impact Corporates?"  To view the podcast, click here.

Harris To Use Metavante for Invidual and Commercia HSAs

Harris Bank will use Metavante Healthcare Payment Solutions for all the technology, operational and back office servicing needed to support its individual and commercial HSAs. Metavante also provides Harris with card processing for debit, prepaid and ATM cards, ATM driving, card production and fulfillment, and check image solutions.   According to Metavante, nearly 150 financial institutions had chosen Metavante Healthcare Payment Solutions.

J&B and Check-IT to Demo Remote A/R Capture

J&B and Cheq-IT will demo a remote A/R capture solution at the 2007 TAWPI conference.  For the full press release, click here. 

     TAWPI 2007:  http://www.tawpi.org/forumexpo.html

Commentary

Remote A/R cature is gaining momentum and will likely be a focus of bank product development in 2008.

Regulators Reach Agreement on Basel II

The Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation reached agreement regarding the implementation of Basel II in the United States. The agreement resolves major outstanding issues and will now lead to finalization of a rule implementing the advanced approaches for computing large banks' risk-based capital requirements.

     Link:  http://www.occ.gov/ftp/release/2007-77.htm

Regulators Issue Statement on BSA/AML Enforcement

Federal regulators have updated their BSA/AML guidance.  The following is an excerpt from their statement, which can be read in its entirety by clicking here.

"For example, an institution that has procedures to provide BSA/AML training to appropriate personnel, independent testing, and a designated BSA/AML compliance officer, would nonetheless be subject to a cease and desist order if its system of internal controls (such as customer due diligence, procedures for monitoring suspicious activity, or an appropriate risk assessment) fails with respect to a high risk area or to multiple line of business that significantly impact the institution's overall BSA compliance.  Similarly, a cease and desist order would be warranted if, for example, an institution has deficiencies in the required independent testing element of the Program and those deficiencies are coupled with evidence of highly suspicious activity creating a significant potential for unreported money laundering or terrorist financing in the institution."

Commentary

As noted in the July 8 post, AP Reports, "AML (Anti-Money Laundering) Compliance Costs Mount," Federal Regulators are raising the bar for BSA/AML compliance.  In the past, it may have been enough to have the training, systems, and documentation in place.  Now regulators will be looking closely at how the bank's BSA/AML program works in day-to-day use.  Banks that haven't done so already should step up their BSA/AML testing efforts.