PASADENA, Calif. — Wescom Resources Group (WRG) says it has processed its five millionth ATM deposit.

The tech CUSO of $3.9 billion Wescom Credit Union began offering the service in 2003 and now handles ATM deposits for nearly 30 credit unions, a list that has increased by five since January.

WRG says the growth has been helped along by its use of state-of-the-art automated systems for deposit imaging, envelope opening, cash counting and counterfeit detection.

Other features include ease of transition and quick start-up time, no retrofitting of machines, and significant cost savings from automated processing, WRG says, along with lessening the expense of upgrading to "envelope-less" ATMs that can automatically scan deposited items.

"Our clients can attest to the array of benefits that WRG provides without a capital investment required," says Kevin Sarber, WRG president.

Overall, WRG has nearly 100 clients using its services, including a hosted service bureau for Symitar Episys users, ATM deposit balancing, item processing, disaster recovery services, online membership applications, home banking and automated lending.

Cypress Adds Credit Scoring Engine To Biz Loan Platform

NORTH RICHLAND HILLS, Texas — Cypress Software Systems has introduced a new credit scoring option for its BizMark small business automated loan decisioning platform used by credit unions and community banks.

Called Bureau Interpretation and Scoring Engine (BISE), the tool allows BizMark users to automatically retrieve reports from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, interpret the data for use in credit policy rules and scorecards, and use the FICO online credit bureau scores of loan principals in the decisioning process.

"Our BISE solution can either automate an existing judgmental underwriting environment, or enable a solution that works with embedded, third party-derived small business scorecards such as those provided by Asch Advisory Services," adds Stephen G. Sargent, president and chief executive officer of Cypress Software Systems.

Fiserv Buys Bank Advisory Business

BROOKFIELD, Wis. — Fiserv Inc.'s latest acquisition is an Atlanta-based firm described as the only online advisory service for financial institutions.

BancIntelligence was founded in 2000 and provides automated analysis and Web-based strategy development to more than 500 clients in 49 states, the company says. Acquisition terms were not disclosed.

BancIntelligence online tools and the services of the company's senior bank strategists are used by bank executives to help identify where they can best allocate resources to optimize profitability and franchise growth.

"The expertise that BancIntelligence provides is a great fit into our mission of enabling best-in-class results for our clients," said Norm Balthasar, Fiserv senior executive vice president and chief operating officer. "Integrating their capabilities into our solution set will further differentiate Fiserv in the competitive landscape."

Founder Steve Cotton and the company's management team will remain with the business as it moves to Fiserv, the new parent company says.

ID Analytics Offers New Way to Assess Thin Credit Histories

SAN DIEGO — ID Analytics Inc. is offering a new solution it says will help lenders more accurately evaluate the risk of people without substantial credit histories.

ID Score-Revenue combines analytics with information from the company's ID Network, which it calls the nation's only real-time, cross-industry compilation of identity information.

The company says its ID Score-Revenue solution will help creditors pinpoint desirable customers who lack credit histories for "a variety of valid reasons," such as young professionals.

"Our research has demonstrated that as many as 25 percent of these individuals can become profitable customers. Without the visibility provided by ID Score–Revenue, companies are turning them away," says Larry McIntosh, chief marketing officer for ID Analytics.

ID Analytics says its customer list now includes four of the top five U.S. wireless carriers and six top credit card issuers, as well as major retailers, government agencies and healthcare insurers.

Reseller Pact Renewed by Online Resources, Postilion

CHANTILLY, Va. — Online Resources Corp. says it is continuing its eight-year arrangement to sell bill payment services as a "vendor of choice" to clients of Postilion's Internet retail banking services.

Online Resources says it has renewed the multi-year reseller arrangement and that Postilion clients also will now be able to use Online Resources' Biller Network and Real-Time Digital Scanline (RTDS) technologies, which it says generates what it calls the highest electronic and lowest claims rates in the industry.

"Their extensive payment network, RTDS technology and seamless integration make Online Resources' bill pay service an excellent complement to our enhanced online banking service," says Pierre Naud, general manager of Postilion Americas, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based S1 Corp.

"Financial institutions choose Postilion Retail Internet Banking when they want to provide their consumers an outstanding online experience, and we are pleased to be an integral part of that equation," says Stephanie Chaufournier, executive vice president and general manager for banking payment services for Online Resources in Chantilly, Va.

Online Resources says it now serves more than 10 million end users and processes $100 billion annually in bill payments. Postilion says it now

provides self-serve banking and payment solutions to customers in more than 50 countries.

Pioneer Valley FCU Goes Live on Summit Platform

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Pioneer Valley Federal Credit Union says it has completed its conversion to the Spectrum On-Line core processing system from Summit Information Systems.

"We now have a system with advanced technology that simplifies our daily business operations and increases efficiency while being user-friendly," said Anabela Pereira, president and CEO of Pioneer Valley FCU.

The $33 million CU is also using the Summit Spectrum Branch Suite browser interface to access automated business tools such as the Competitive Loan, a loan analysis and cross-selling tool, and Member ID, a member relationship tool that visually verifies a member's identity instantly, via any combination of identity documents scanned into Branch Suite using OCR technology.

Summit Information Systems is a Fiserv credit union core processing unit based in Corvallis, Ore. Pioneer Valley FCU had been running a re:Member Data Services platform from Open Solutions Inc., according to NCUA.

Western Union, Yodlee Join Forces on Bill Pay

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Western Union Co. and consumer banking and payment solutions provider Yodlee Inc. are offering a program they say is the first to directly link financial institutions' online bill pay services to the thousands of billers using Western Union Payment Services.

The new program, available through Yodlee's new BillPay PayItAll solution, eliminates the lag of up to several days it takes for financial institutions to settle an account. Instead of paper draft checks, the system will provide same-day and next-day online payments, the companies say.

Western Union Payment Services completed more than 249 million consumer-to-business transactions last year, the company says. The service allows consumers to pay directly through an IVR at the biller's Web site or through its customer service reps, or at one of 48,000 Western Union agent locations, the Englewood, Colo., company says.

Anil Arora, the CEO of Redwood City, Calif.-based Yodlee, says, "We see this as a tremendous opportunity to improve the online banking and bill-pay experience for consumers and small businesses, while at the same time, enable our financial institution customers to generate significant new revenue."

CashEdge Survey Finds Demand for Increased Online Offerings

NEW YORK — Online bankers want to be able to do more of their banking online, and will switch providers to do just that.

That's what a majority of the respondents to CashEdge's second-annual Consumer Online Banking Survey say in a poll of 400 head-of-household online bankers commissioned by the New York-based provider of online account opening, funds transfer and data consolidation services to credit unions, banks and wealth-management firms.

Eighty-five percent of the respondents said they would never bank with an institution that didn't offer online banking, while 82% say they would use more online banking capabilities if they were available, 73% say they prefer opening and funding a new bank account online, and 65% say they would move their finances to another institution if it meant gaining access to more-robust online banking capabilities.

Sanjeev Dheer, CashEdge's CEO, says "consumers are still waiting for banks to deliver on the promise of the online channel" and that he believes "we are nearing the point where banks that underutilize the online channel will experience a backlash."

The 400 respondents were located across the nation and described themselves as bank customers (79%), credit union members (18%) and customers of "direct/virtual banks" (3%), CashEdge says.

Digital Defense Adds to Educational Offerings

SAN ANTONIO — Digital Defense Inc. says it has added keylogging to the cyber-threat education courses it offers through its Security Training, Education and Awareness Module Learning Management System (TEAM LMS).

The IT security firm delivers the TEAM LMS content in English and Spanish and offers courses that include such areas as online fraud, passwords, viruses/worms, Trojans and spyware, securing home computers, online banking myths, home firewalls, child safety online and wireless security.

"Our clients maintain that making educational opportunities on security available to their online patrons is very important. This is just one part of our Software as a Service (SaaS) approach, which naturally facilitates regulatory compliance for our clients in an efficient and effective manner," said Larry Hurtado, president and CEO of Digital Defense.

"The growing TEAM course content, with new additions each quarter, provides me with a simple way to help ensure that we are meeting regulatory compliance goals through the education of members who take advantage of our online services," said Joan Moran, CEO at the $52 million Department of Labor Federal Credit Union in Washington, D.C.

nuBridges Expands Mainframe Data Security Tools

ATLANTA — nuBridges Inc. is now offering what it calls the first packaged application to ensure e-business security on mainframe computers.

Critical features of the nuBridges Data Secure for z/OS solution include the ability to provide data encryption at the field-and-file level to protect credit card and other sensitive data at rest, according to the Atlanta-based provider of e-business security and compliance software.

"While the software industry has done a good job of developing applications to secure information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers and health information on desktops, servers and midrange systems, securing data on mainframes has been largely ignored–until now. Many mainframe applications are legacy systems and making changes to these types of applications is very difficult and fraught with risk," said Gary Palgon, vice president of product management at nuBridges (www.nubridges.com).

"nuBridges Data Secure for z/OS closes the enterprise data security gap by providing the same level of protection for data residing on a mainframe computer as on Windows and UNIX-based servers and PCs, and midrange systems."

He says his company's new offering helps financial services providers meet compliance mandates such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and new state-mandated breach notification laws.

Postilion to Offer Mobile Banking Solution

ATLANTA — Postilion is joining the mobile banking fray by offering its own Postilion Mobile solution for credit unions and banks in the United States, according to the self-service banking and payments division of S1 Corp.

Postilion has bought a source code license from international mobile banking and payment solutions provider Fundamo of Cape Town, South Africa, and says a team of Fundamo employees will join Atlanta-based Postilion to continue to develop the company's mobile solutions offerings.

Postilion Mobile supports a wide range of banking and payment functions, is multi-language and multi-currency capable, and offers a consistent look and feel across Postilion self-service channels, the company says.

"The launch of Postilion Mobile demonstrates how we continue to leverage our experience gained in international markets, where mobile banking and payments are more mature, to help banks and credit unions stay ahead in the U.S.," said Pierre Naude, general manager of Postilion Americas.

The company's announcement cites a recent Aite Group study that predicts mobile banking users in the United States will grow from 1.6 million this year to nearly 35 million by 2010.

Secure Computing Corp. Cites Web 2.0 Threats

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The potential security threats of Web 2.0 technology have many IT network guardians on high alert, according to a survey conducted by Forrester Consulting for IT security provider Secure Computing Corp.

The survey of 153 IT professionals and security decision makers at companies with at least 1,000 employees found that about half of them spent more than $25,000 in the last fiscal year on malware remediation, the kinds of threats often associated with the Web-based communities and hosted applications and services that have come to be often generically labeled as Web 2.0.

However, while 97% of the respondents said they considered themselves prepared for such threats, only 12% said they were concerned about botnets, although that particular variety of attack, through bot networks, has been growing rapidly, according to Secure Computing.

The survey found that 79% of the respondents were concerned about viruses and 77% about Trojans. It also found that organizations were paying $15 to $30 per user per year to recover from malware threats alone.

Secure Computing is an international provider of enterprise gateway security and has launched what it calls its SWAT (Secure Web 2.0 Anti-Threat Initiative) to raise awareness of the issues and offer its available solutions. More information is at www.securecomputing.com/SWAT.

PSCU Hits Half-Million Mark in Bill Pay Users

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — More than a half-million end users are now paying more than 2.6 million bills a month online through the PayLynx bill pay service from PSCU Financial Services, according to the nation's biggest CUSO.

The PayLynx service has added 100,000 subscribers in the past 12 months and is planning to add online bill pay for small businesses in January, the CUSO said.

The PSCU service now has a greater percentage of active subscribers and higher rates of acceptance for electronic bill payment by billers than other providers of the CheckFree service.

"Our online bill payment solution addresses user needs with same day/next day payments, a single landing page with biller history and other time-saving features," said David Serlo, president and CEO of PSCU Financial Services.

"Our collaborative efforts have clearly led to tremendous growth in the cooperative's subscriber base, and also resulted in bringing innovative solutions such as FraudNet to the market," said Ted Chaney, director of relationship management at CheckFree Corp. in Atlanta.

Also driving adoption are the advisors who help credit unions identify growth opportunities and design campaigns to address the specific needs of each membership, the CUSO says.

The cooperative's marketing tools include an online video in addition to traditional posters and other materials designed for use with newsletters, statements and the Web site.

One of the first PayLynx users, Washington State Employees Credit Union in Olympia, says it added 1,400 new users in two months through such efforts and now has more than 11,500 online bill pay subscribers among its 149,000 members.

"PayLynx is an excellent product but we must attribute a significant amount of our success to the efforts of the cooperative's PayLynx staff," said Kristina Walters, the $1.3 billion credit union's vice president of marketing and business development.