New stats from Checkfree indicate the pervasiveness of bill pay. Finextra: Two-thirds of US households pay bills online – Checkfree The survey, which tracks bill payment behavior, revealed that 69 percent of U.S. online households say they are paying at least one bill online, up from 56 percent in March 2005. This includes consumers who pay any bill from a single “consolidated” website, such as a bank, and those who pay individual bills at a “biller direct” website, such as a telecommunications or credit card company. Online payments are steadily replacing check writing as the way to pay bills among … Continue reading Two-thirds of US households pay bills online – Checkfree

I have met these folks from Source Technologies, and I believe they are on to something, with the teller assisted concept.  In the US there is also the explosion of self service in convenience stores, supporting the “unbanked”.

Source Technologies Hosts Financial Self-Service eForum to Educate Financial Institutions, Billers, and Retailers; Online Event Discusses Next-Generation Financial Kiosk Technology and Applications

In June 2006, Source Technologies, a leading provider of integrated solutions for managing financial transactions and other secure business processes, will host a series of four consecutive online forums for companies exploring financial self-service kiosk applications.

The teller assisted concept says that people will still come into branches for the foreseeable future to conduct transactions, so in order to manage them cost effectively, have the customer perform part of the activity on a machine (kiosk/ hybrid ATM containing specialised functions), and have the teller in effect manage multiple customers simultaneously.

I have seen the demo, but that was over a year ago, so I am curious to see what progress has been made, and in particular, which functions have successfully been managed via these devices.  The theory is that the device is an extension of the branch transaction platform, and so commercial deposits is one obvious one, but which others?  I am curious about wires for example, or stop payments – those slightly more complex transactions that would benefit from teller assistance.

Anyhow this online forum is free, and may be worth your attention to listen in.  I will be there.

Continue reading “Source Technologies Hosts Financial Self-Service eForum to Educate Financial Institutions, Billers, and Retailers”

Excellent discussion of the evolution of marketing in the Web 2.0 era, of blogs, and social networks. Marqui – Marqui Whitepaper Downloads The evolution of technology has caused a fundamental power shift in consumer behavior. Thus, businesses that wish to maintain their competitive edge must rethink the way they market. This paper offers an introduction to the concept of Marketing 2.0 and provides advice to marketers looking to understand and succeed in the new “invisible” domain. Relevance to Bankwatch:Understanding the new world requires much thought, and iterative change for Banks.  This paper provides excellent context, and some ideas suggestions. Technorati … Continue reading Whitepaper on the New Marketing

Steve Rubel made some interesting points about marketing in the Web 2.0 world.  its not a replacement for traditional marketing incremental effort is required to adopt the new marketing there are new skills required, to listen and engage with the influencers in the blogging community potential metrics are: conversations engagement with influencers touchpoints with influencers inbound links much discussion about character blogs traditional marketers say they are good Steve says bad I say bad .. they are telling a message ” I talk, you listen” Technorati Tags: mesh_conference Continue reading New Marketing – MESH

Web 2.0 is regarded by many as a solution, looking for a problem lots of questions, I would characterise as Long Tailish – are new markets being created, or canabilising old ones Netwrok effect of creating new groups, solidifying opinions, and views economic model of blogging – much too much talk abut monetisation, metrics Om spoke eloquently about blogging putting a personal face on corporations, such as Scoble Disruption: lots still truing to fit new models into old thinking Om again – blogs provide context MESH Technorati Tags: mesh conference, toronto Continue reading MESH Day 1 themes

Worth reading for everyone, and all bankers, just to understand the human dimension of internet fraud.

The New Yorker: Fact

How a Massachusetts psychotherapist fell for a Nigerian e-mail scam.

The true irony is that the credulous American here is the only one who went to jail.  His trust in 'God' and belief in the "poor" Nigerian people he was dealing with ruined him, and his family.  He was a 57 years old, churchgoing veteran.  The Banks lost in this too, because of the bad cheques for several hundred thousand, that Worley negotiated.

The trial took six days, and the jury found Worley guilty on all counts. On February 15th, Worley, now sixty-two, returned to the federal courthouse at the edge of Boston Harbor to face sentencing. 

Continue reading “THE PERFECT MARK – a sobering, detailed description of email fraud”

This purchase is directly tied to facilitate the value chain for their customers. By making the contractor financing easier this will attract more business for the chain. Ideas & Screening | Reuters.com This approach is distinct in several respects. Consumers would get easy access to lenders who have specialized understanding of the home improvement market. Local contractors would no longer have to watch passively as consumers wrestle with issues relating to whether they will or won't be able to finance their projects. And the intervention of a reputable third party could alleviate frequent tensions between contractors and customers over the … Continue reading Home Depot buys a Bank

Hitesh Patel, KPMG Forensic talk about the escalation of fraud despite the introduction of chip and pin. The criminals are able to move to the weakest point in the system. Why chip & Pin won't stop fraud | This is Money The fastest growing area is 'cardholder not present' fraud. According to the  clearing banks' association Apacs, it shot up 29pc to £90m in the first six  months of 2005 and accounted for more than 40% of total card fraud losses. Its worth noting the fraud escalation is not an intrinsic weakness in chip and pin. In fact we are … Continue reading Why chip & Pin won’t stop fraud

Lloyds notes the increase in fraud in non chip countries, such as Canada, and USA. Bank says overseas card fraud on the rise – Money – Times Online Lloyds TSB has reported a leap in the number of fraudulent withdrawals from overseas ATMs. The bank says criminals are increasingly using cloned debit or credit cards in countries where chip and pin technology has not yet been introduced. The weakest link theory applies here.  Those countries that lag moving to chip and pin, will suffer increased fraud. Lloyds TSB has reported a leap in the number of fraudulent withdrawals from overseas … Continue reading Lloyds Bank says overseas card fraud on the rise

In a move by the criminals they highlight the weakness in combo chip / mag stripe cards. These are cards that have chip and mag stripe on them. This is the primary transitional approach taken by banks, to circumvent issuing separate chip cards, and mag stripe cards. Customers would require mag stripe for usage abroad where chip has not been implemented yet.

Guardian Unlimited | UK Latest | Eight held over chip and pin fraud

The scam works by criminals implanting devices into chip and pin machines which can copy a bank card's magnetic strip and record a person's pin number.The device cannot copy the chip, which means any fake card can only be used in machines where chip and pin is not implemented – often abroad.

Relevance to Bankwatch:
As predicted in an earlier 'relevance' I remain convinced that combo cards could be the death of chip, and the better approach would be to issue chip cards only with no mag stripe. If customers need a mag stripe for travel or other purposes, then they can get those. The problem is the transition of merchants to chip, so customers desire to have chip only cards is the best impetus for them.

Technorati Tags: chip_cards, debit_cards, credit_cards

Continue reading “The weakness in combo chip/ mag stripe cards”