Credit Union tech-talk News

July 30 - August 3, 2007

• General News
• Hardware News
• Software Updates
• ATMs/Kiosks
• Biometric Digest Highlights
• Wireless World
• Security Section
• Leaders Roundtable
• Technology and Marketing
• Online Banking/E-Commerce/
  Website Design
• Internet Access
• Call Centers
• Conferences

* Harland Financial Solutions Signs Arapahoe Credit Union 
* Ongoing Operations Partners with Blue Ridge Networks
* Digital Dialogue Releases DigiKnow
* OneBridge Adds Visa payWave to Suite of Solutions

Arapahoe Credit Union has chosen Harland Financial Solutions’ UltraData Enterprise as its new core processing system, joining the more than 260 credit unions utilizing the solution in an outsourced environment. The credit union will convert to UltraData Enterprise from its current in-house platform on December 1, 2007 and be served from Harland Financial Solutions’ Des Moines, Iowa Enterprise Services Center. In addition to UltraData Enterprise, the credit union also purchased the Touché Sales & Service member relationship management solution. 

Ongoing Operations, LLC announced a strategic relationship with Blue Ridge Networks to promote and distribute their Blue Ridge/Secure Virtual Ethernet Service (SVES) to Credit Unions they are serving nationwide. Ongoing Operations is a leader in the credit union industry providing Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity solutions throughout the United States. Ongoing Operations has also signed an agreement to use Teneros as its disaster recovery solution for Microsoft Exchange.

Digital Dialogue, a PSCU Financial Services company,has released DigiKnow, a new Web-based application that can answer key questions about a credit union's operations 24/7. DigiKnow is a software tool that quickly answers frequently asked questions and is included as part of the total package for Digital Dialogue’s call center customers. 

OneBridge, a credit and debit card processor for credit unions nationwide, has added contactless payment processing to its suite of payment processing solutions. With the addition of this solution, OneBridge’s clients are now able to issue Visa payWave as an added feature of their credit and debit card programs.

Hardware News

Xerox announced the availability of the WorkCentre 7675 advanced color multi-function system and the WorkCentre 5600 series black-and-white multi-function systems, the company's newest and fastest products that print, copy, scan and fax. The WorkCentre 7675 prints and copies at speeds of up to 50 pages per minute (ppm) in color and 75 ppm in black and white. The security options on the new WorkCentre 7675 include the ability to authenticate users and a feature called secure print. Other security features include an image override that will delete the print job after it is sent to the device so it doesn't remain on the hard drive. There is also encryption on the WorkCentre 7675 that as the data moves through the network and gets to the device no one is able to intercept it or decipher it. The list price for the WorkCentre 7675 starts at $28,300, while the WorkCentre 5600 series starts at $6,475.

The hard disk maker Western Digital announced plans for its GreenPower hard disk family with lower power consumption. They range in capacity from 320 GB to 1 TB. New features incorporated in the drives to reduce power consumption are:

• Balancing spin speed, transfer rate and cache size (IntelliPower) 
• Unloading the heads during idle to reduce aerodynamic drag (IntelliPark) 
• Optimizing seek speed to reduce noise and vibration (IntelliSeek)

MagTek®’s ExpressCard 1000 is the industry’s first “ALL-IN-ONE” instant issuance and complete card personalization platform forCredit, Debit, ATM, and Financial Gift Cards designed to fit securely and comfortably within a branch location.

For the first time, card personalization features such as color card-printing, magstripe encoding, smartcard encoding, card embossing, indent printing, and foil tipping have been combined into a single device which provides both the physical and logical security features required to meet the demands of a branch or retailer’s card issuing environment.

Equipped with MagnePrint® card authentication technology (www.magneprint.com), the ExpressCard 1000 offers the capability to capture the card's reference MagnePrint at the time of card issuance so that reference value may be used in conjunction with complementary risk management analytics with card present transactions. The ExpressCard 1000 can be connected as a peripheral to MagTek’s IntelliCAT and MCAPS 3000 PIN selection and instant issuance software suites creating a complete and secure card issuing platform.

For more information on ExpressCard 1000, go to www.magtek.com or call your MagTek sales representative at 800-788-6835.

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ATMs/Kiosks

Similar to dye packs at the teller line, ink-staining systems are starting to gain traction with carriers delivering cash to ATMs. For example, Spinnaker International, which provides protection systems for cash in transit, has released a new version of its iBox solution, a cash-transport container that degrades cash without the use of pyrotechnic devices. The Patented Spinnaker mechanism uses plastic tubes to inject bags of cash with ink at a high speeds.

CommunityAmerica will provide electronic ATM location data that can be used with many Garmin GPS devices to provide quick turn-by-turn driving directions to more than 25,000 credit union ATMs. CommunityAmerica members can obtain the data free of charge at any branch location or via the credit union’s website. Beginning Aug. 1, CommunityAmerica members can obtain the data free of charge three different ways:

• Visit any CommunityAmerica branch to load the ATM “points of interest” directly into Garmin devices. 
• Visit a branch and obtain the data in a format that can be taken home and loaded into a Garmin device via the member’s home computer. 
• Via the CommunityAmerica online banking website, for members who use online banking. 

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Hitachi announced the development of a biometric cardless credit payment system, called “finger vein money,” which allows shoppers to pay for purchases using only their fingertips. Finger vein money relies on Hitachi’s finger vein authentication technology, which verifies a person’s identity by reading the pattern of blood vessels in his or her fingers. These blood vessel patterns are unique to each individual, much like fingerprints or retinas, only they are hidden securely under the skin, making them all the more difficult to counterfeit. Hitachi’s finger vein authentication technology is already being used to verify user identities for ATMs, door access control systems and computer log-in systems in Japan and elsewhere.

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The director of the Smart Card Alliance (SCA) said the Federal Reserve Board’s recent decision to modify its Regulation E and eliminate the requirement to provide a receipt for debit purchases under $15 will benefit both consumers and merchants by making smaller transactions quicker and more cost effective. “Contactless payment adoption at quick service retail stores in the United States took off in part as a result of the payments industry rule changes that waived the requirement of signatures for credit card transactions under $25,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the SCA. Now quick-service restaurants, convenience stores and event concessionaires along with vending, parking and transit operators will all benefit from the Fed’s action on Regulation E, according to Vanderhoof. 

Sprint Nextel is extending its relations with credit union leagues with the addition of a deal with the California Credit Union League. The National Credit Union Member Discount Plan will offer participating League member CUs in California and Nevada a 15% discount on monthly recurring cell phone charges as well as discounts on accessories and equipment for corporate accounts. The California CU League joins the leagues from Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Utah, and Washington in participating in the program. 

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Security vendor McAfee has released free rootkit detection software. "Rootkit Detective uncovers hidden processes, registry entries and files and lets users safely remove or disable them upon system reboot. In addition, Rootkit Detective can scan the integrity of a PCs kernel memory and display any modification, which may also point to a system compromise," McAfee said in its product announcement.

After declining a couple of years ago, financial institution robberies in the US are on the rise again, according to the FBI. FBI statistics show robberies rose nearly 4 percent in 2006 to 6,985, the equivalent of one heist every hour and 15 minutes. Authorities said this year's numbers appear to be climbing even higher, with some areas hit particularly hard: Detroit, Chicago, Dallas and Boston. According to the FBI, of the $70 million taken from FIs last year, only $9.5 million has been recovered.

Security vendor eEye releases first appliance: the REM Security Management Appliance 1505. The rack-mountable appliance incorporates several of eEye’s applications, including Retina Network Security Scanner software, the Blink Enterprise and Professional Client Security with antivirus and the REM Security Management Console. The firm says that it can scan the network for both known and unauthorized devices, including servers, desktops, routers and switches to identify missing patches, misconfiguration and other vulnerabilities. The 1505 appliance can scan as many as 15,000 managed devices and manage and deploy as many as 5,000 endpoint security assets; it starts at $23,495.

MAGENSA™ is a trusted verification authority (TVA) that provides real-time remote-hosted credential authentication services. These services enable credit unions, financial institutions, businesses, and government agencies to integrate PCI DSS and FFIEC multi-factor authentication and end-to-end data encryption capabilities into their existing processing environments without the need for substantial financial investments or massive changes to the existing infrastructure.

Specifically tailored to enhance the security of internet banking and ATM applications, MAGENSA delivers unprecedented security and authentication using the familiar magstripe card credentials (secure tokens) that a credit union has already issued to its members. MAGENSA is powered by the trusted and proven card authentication technology known as MagnePrint® (www.magneprint.com). MagnePrint differentiates a members’ authentic magstripe card from an altered or counterfeit version, transforming the traditional magstripe card into a powerful security token.

MAGENSA’s Secure Data Center (SDC), a reliable 24x7 operations center that is maintained 365 days a year, simplifies the integration of data decryption and MagnePrint scoring into existing websites, and allows for data federation across institutional domains.

For more information on MAGENSA, please visit www.magensa.net or call 877.MAGENSA.

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Online Banking: 

Embraced by Members - The Next Steps

Digital Resolve - http://www.digital-resolve.net Read Dennis Maicon's comments: http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/DigitalResolve.pdf

GalaxyPlus - http://www.galaxyplus.com   Read Jay Slavin's comments:     http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/GalaxyPlus.pdf

Harland Financial Solutions - http://www.harlandfinancialsolutions.com   Read Niles Bay's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/HFS.pdf

Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com Read Greg Haislip's comments: http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/Microsoft.pdf

Open Solutions - http://www.opensolutions.com   Read Michael D. Nicastro's comments: http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/OSI.pdf

uMonitor - http://www.towergroup.com   Read George Tubin's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/TowerGroup.pdf

uMonitor - http://www.umonitor.com   Read Dinesh Sheth's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/uMonitor.pdf

USERS - http://www.users.com   Read Eric Panepinto's comments:   http://www.cunews.com/roundtable/USERS.pdf

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A new survey shows that 80% of teenagers believe learning the basics of money management now will serve them in the future – yet 86% have never taken a personal finance class. According to the Capital One seventh annual back to school shopping survey, 52% of teens are eager to learn more about money management, yet less than a quarter of parents have discussed back-to-school budgeting with them. It appears that credit unions could help fill in a void in this area.

Dayton, OH-based Day Air Credit Union has come up with an innovative auto loan that also helps members save money. Their 'Auto Loan Plus' comes with a built-in savings account. Any extra money that is added to the monthly auto loan payment is automatically transferred into a high dividend earning account.

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Celent estimates that fewer than 2% of US financial institutions are offering automated online account opening capabilities today, a figure that will increase to between 18% and 20% by 2010, according to a new report, “Online Account Opening: Raising the Bar” from Celent, a Boston-based financial research and consulting firm. Other findings of the report include:

• We are at the beginning of the adoption curve for the online opening of deposit accounts. Celent expects that the new core deposit accounts opened entirely online will grow from over 4 million accounts in 2006 to over 9 million accounts in 2009.
• When consumers are required to fund an account by mailing in a check, anywhere from 60% of 70% of those accounts never get funded. Many financial institutions are eager to implement solutions that support automated and ideally “instant” funding.

A new report has determined that if all US households viewed and paid bills online, including credit card bills, it would save 2.3 million tons of wood; reduce fuel consumption by 26 million BTUs; decrease toxic air pollutants by 3.9 billion pounds; reduce toxic wastewater by 13 billion gallons; lower solid waste generated by 1.6 billion pounds; and remove 8.5 million particulates and 12.6 million nitrogen oxides from the air. The study released by Javelin Strategy & Research also reveals that 61 million households currently bank online (53% of the U.S. household population) which is projected to reach 82 million households by 2012, or 67% of US households. 

Revolutionary Convergence of Security Technology for Secure Internet Banking!

MagneSafe^TM P55 is a portable card reader/authenticator with four key technologies for secure online banking: Cardholder Data Encryption, MagnePrint^® card authentication technology, Website Authentication and Track 1, 2 and 3 card reading capabilities. In conjunction with MagneSafe^TM, the MagneSafe P55 is designed to offer secure, multifactor authentication for Internet banking, empowering consumers with the freedom and confidence of knowing that their transactions are protected anytime, anywhere.

MAGENSA, a Trusted Verification Authority that provides real-time, remote-hosted credential authentication services, allows credit unions to integrate PCI DSS and FFIEC compliant multifactor authentication, data encryption, website authentication, and data federation capabilities without the need for substantial financial investments or massive changes to the existing infrastructure.

For more information about the MagneSafe P55 or MAGENSA, visit www.magensa.net, or call 877.MAGENSA.  

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Riverbed Technology is making it possible to speed up WAN traffic between data centers and individual computers without requiring a dedicated WAN acceleration appliance at both ends of the connection. The company says that through a variety of optimization functions, their Riverbed Steelhead Mobile software can reduce the amount of traffic that has to cross the WAN, make TCP work more efficiently, and streamline individual applications. The software is also compatible with VPN software from Cisco, Nortel, Juniper, OpenVPN, Microsoft, Check Point, Citrix and Aventail so traffic is optimized before it is encrypted for the VPN tunnel. 

Video conferencing is on the rise thanks to lowered costs, improved picture quality, clearer audio, and higher, low cost bandwidth. The price of the technology has come down and the ease of installation and operation has been designed to be simple. One example is the LifeSize Team system which starts at $7,999 and offers video conferencing at 1280x720 resolution across the Internet or private WAN.

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Smaller credit unions that are looking into investing in an interactive voice response (IVR) systems may want to consider attending a free Webinar from Angel.com. The webinar will discuss key options to consider when planning an IVR implementation, including:

- Hosted vs. On-Premise
- Automation vs. Live Agents
- Speech vs. Touch Tone
- VoIP vs. PSTN 

The live webinar will be held on Aug. 2, at 2:00 PM Eastern time: 
http://www.angel.com/resource-center/webinars.jsp 

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Catch Tom and Bill Rogers, Associate Editor of Credit Union tech-talk at the following conferences in 2007:

August 9-10, Pasadena - Financial Technology Solutions International Technology Forum

October 10-13, Albuquerque - Firefighters' National Credit Union Summit

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