Two important new books about security - and payments security in particular - arrived on my desk this week.

The first book - the second edition of Ross Anderson's Security Engineering - provides fascinating insights into all of those things that are often overlooked when designing secure systems. Anderson provides a comprehensive survey of the issues, the nature of successful attacks, with serious recommendations on how to simply do better across a range of security applications. This is a big book - not exactly suited for reading on the beach - but important nonetheless! Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars by Amazon.com reviewers.

The second book - Zero Day Threat by Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz - provides real insights into the threats that attackers are exploiting to gain the necessary information to take over online banking, PayPal, brokerage, and other accounts. If "know your enemy" makes sense to you, then you'll find Zero Day Threat of great interest. Zero Day Threat is 5-star rated by Amazon.com reviewers.

Both of these books have just been added to the first page of the Payments News Bookstore on Amazon.com.

A new Online Banking Report has been published titled 'Online Investing Communities: Will social networking revolutionize saving & investing?'. From the announcement: 'We believe social networking will eventually play a large role in online investing, and evidently we are not alone. We found 54 companies involved in investment information exchange and only six of those have monthly traffic of 100,000 or more.'

Yodlee and Postilion have announced a 'partnership to integrate Yodlee PersonalFinance and Yodlee DirectPay into Postilion's Retail and Business Internet Banking solutions to enable Postilion's' financial institution customers to deliver stronger online banking solutions and develop new revenue-generating opportunities via card-based online bill payment.'   » Continue Reading

NACHA has announced that Secure Vault Payments is now a live alternative payment option. The ACH-based Internet payments network allows consumers to conduct e-commerce and bill payment transactions without sharing personal account information.   » Continue Reading

Aite Group has published a new report titled 'Usage Trends in Online and Mobile Banking: Upping the Ante' finding that reviews consumer adoption trends for online and mobile banking services over the next two years.   » Continue Reading

Brian Krebs writes for his Security Fix blog at the Washington Post about changes to the banking code in the UK that stress that online banking customers have the responsibility to keep up-to-date anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc. software installed on their computers - and wonders why more US banks don't make available hardware tokens to secure online access (the way PayPal optionally does).

The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has published the 2007 Internet Crime Report . For the year, IC3 received 206,884 complaints of crimes perpetrated over the Internet during 2007. Of the complaints received, more than 90,000 were referred to law enforcement around the nation, amounting to nearly $240 million in reported losses. This represents a $40 million increase in reported losses from complaints referred to law enforcement in 2006.   » Continue Reading

Citibank has announced that it will make Obopay’s mobile person-to-person payment service available to Citibank checking account customers on a trial basis. Citibank says it is the first U.S. retail bank to trial an integrated mobile payment service.   » Continue Reading

Nearly 90 percent of Americans say they feel safe online despite the rising tide of spyware, phishing and other badware threatening Internet users, according to a new poll sponsored by StopBadware.org, a consumer protection initiative aimed at combating dangerous software.   » Continue Reading

Quova has announced a partnership with Guardian Analytics to help protect online financial accounts from fraud and identity theft. "Under the partnership, Guardian Analytics has integrated Quova’s IP geolocation data into its FraudMAP solution. Providing online channel risk management, FraudMAP delivers fraud detection, forensics and ongoing risk monitoring based on strong analytics and predictive models of individual behavior. The unique solution was built from the ground up to automatically detect new online fraud threats in real time without requiring rules development or algorithm training."   » Continue Reading

Adaptive Path's Jesse James Garrett interviews Wells Fargo's Secil Tabli Watson, senior vice president of Internet channel strategy at Wells Fargo Bank, about user-centered design and experience at Wells Fargo. Watson will be speaking at Adaptive Path's upcoming MX San Francisco conference being held April 21-22.

In the UK, APACS has reported 2007 statistics for both card fraud losses and online banking fraud losses. Card fraud losses were up by 25% with the increase being driven by a £90.5 million increased in fraud abroad as more UK card details were stolen for use in countries yet to upgrade to chip and PIN. Online banking fraud losses went down 33% to £22.6 million.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled 'Adobe Blurs Line Between PC and Web', John Markoff writes for the New York Times about the rich Internet application environment released today by Adobe: Adobe AIR. Adobe's list of showcase AIR applications doesn't yet include any from banks or other financial services companies.

Guardian Analytics has announced the release of FraudMAP, a fraud prevention solution for protecting online accounts from fraud and identity theft. According to the company, "FraudMAP delivers fraud detection, forensics and ongoing risk monitoring based on strong analytics and rich, predictive models of individual behavior. The unique solution was built from the ground up to automatically detect new online fraud threats without requiring fraud rules development or algorithm training."   » Continue Reading

Bank of America has announced the launch of a new "Bank the Way you Live" online banking microsite. The bank says it enables "customers with on-the- go lifestyles can learn how to break free of conventional banking and find the freedom and control to manage their personal finances online or via mobile or smart phone, courtesy of the number one online bank."   » Continue Reading

Digital Insight has announced that "more than 60 leading financial institutions have selected Digital Insight’s consumer Internet Banking solution since the online banking company was acquired by Intuit in February 2007. In addition, more than 8 million people, or approximately 10 percent of all online banking users in the United States, actively use Digital Insight’s consumer solution through its nearly 1,800 financial institution clients."   » Continue Reading

A new SunTrust Bank and CheckFree study "reveals a clear link between electronic billing and payment habits and higher account balances, customer loyalty and profitability."   » Continue Reading

ACI Worldwide has announced that it will offer enhanced mobile banking capabilities to its online banking customers. "ACI’s business and consumer online banking customers will be able to use their cell phones, wireless handheld devices, or other handset devices to view information and perform online functions. Banks will be able to offer mobile access as an alternate channel while leveraging investment in Enterprise Banker data, entitlements and authentication."   » Continue Reading

Grant Buckler writes for The Globe and Mail about multi-factor authentication and online banking - reporting that "combining passwords with questions and/or web cookies is the most popular multi-factor authentication technique online."

CashEdge has announced the results of its second annual Consumer Online Banking Survey. "Eighty-five percent of respondents would never bank with an institution that didn't offer online banking, eighty-two percent of those surveyed say they would use more online banking capabilities if they were available, seventy-three percent of the respondents say they prefer opening and funding a new bank account online, and nearly two-thirds (65 percent) would move their finances to another institution if it meant gaining access to more robust online banking capabilities."   » Continue Reading

Glenbrook's Bryan Derman filed the following report tonight from today's Finovate 1.0 Conference in New York City.   » Continue Reading

MODASolutions eBillMe, an alternative payment option that allows consumers to pay merchants directly through their online bank account, has introduced a new Buyer Protection Plan.   » Continue Reading

NACHA has announced the fee structure for its online payments pilot, Secure Vault Payments (SVP). According to NACHA, "the pilot, scheduled to go live the first quarter of 2008, will enable consumers to initiate private and secure payments for purchases and bill payments through their financial institutions' online banking platforms. During the pilot, participating financial institutions will authenticate consumers and provide real-time payment authorizations for ACH Network transactions to the participating online businesses."

According to our calculations, on a $50 purchase, the fees would be: 1) an authorization fee of $0.675 paid from the merchant's bank to the consumer's bank, a $0.06 switch fee paid by the merchant's bank, another $0.06 switch fee paid by the consumer's bank, a $0.01 network fee paid to NACHA by the merchant's bank and another $0.01 network fee paid to NACHA by the consumer's bank. The total of all the fees here - not including any mark-up by the merchant's bank to the merchant - would be $0.815 or about 1.63% of the purchase amount. Read on for the details of NACHA's announcement.

Update - September 18, 2007: We spoke with NACHA this morning about our calculations above. While the total fees collected from all parties involved on a $50 transaction are the $0.815 shown above, the fees charged to merchants for a Secure Vault Payments transaction would be the authorization fee of $0.675 paid by the merchant's bank, plus the $0.06 switch fee paid by the merchant's bank, plus the $0.01 network fee to NACHA paid by the merchant's bank. Those merchant-side fees total $0.745 on a $50 purchase or about 1.49% of the purchase amount. The merchant's bank will, of course, need to charge additional processing fees to the merchant for providing the Secure Vault Payments service which would be over and above those "wholesale" fees.   » Continue Reading

Is the best use of mobile devices by financial services players to use them for securing online banking access? Rob McMillan writes for PC World about Bank of America's SafePass announcement yesterday. Or, is two-factor authentication in the US market just a zero sum game between the bank and the consumer?

Sybase 365 has announced new research report titled "Mobile Opportunities for the Financial Sector" concluding that "U.S. consumers are obsessed with managing their personal finances. More than a third of U.S. consumers, dubbed 'nano-economists,' are able to state their bank balance at any given time, and an additional 42 percent typically know their bank balance to the nearest $200."   » Continue Reading

Bank of America has announced a new security feature for its online banking service called SafePass™ that the bank says "provides customers with an extra layer of protection against unauthorized transactions." According to the bank, "SafePass delivers a one-time-use six digit code as a text message to consumers' mobile devices that they can use to authorize their most sensitive online transactions. As an additional security measure, the code expires as soon as it is used or within 10 minutes after it is issued."   » Continue Reading

Forrester's Alyson Clarke takes a look at Australia's BPAY bill payment service - saying it is "believed to have been a catalyst for all other Internet banking transactions. The service already dominates the electronic bill payment market. With recent news that BPAY's only real competitor, Australia Post's Postbillpay, will discontinue its Internet service, the firm will soon strongly dominate intermediated Internet bill payments. The secret behind BPAY's success? Cooperation."

Technically oriented bankers considering their mobile banking strategies may find Cameron Moll's new book "Mobile Web Design" helpful. Moll writes in his introduction that "web content on mobile devices can be every bit as good of an experience [as the desktop experience], but in its own right. If we treat the mobile web as its own environment rich with possibilities, rather than a crippled extension of the desktop experience with restrictive limitations, we begin to understand how to embrace and even exploit those possibilities."

Rebecca Jones writes for Denver's Rocky Mountain News about consumer attitudes toward online banking - reporting the fears about security remain the "No. 1 roadblock." She reports that "online banking's greatest advantages - easy access and paperless transactions - also are its greatest liabilities in the minds of some."

APACS has announced telephone, Internet banking and eCommerce figures for 2006 revealing that "in the past five years the greatest proportion of new internet banking users are in the over-55 age group. The five-year growth statistics for online banking show that the number of adults in the UK using online banking has increased by 174 per cent from 6.2 million in 2001 to 17.0 million last year. This includes a 350 per cent increase in usage amongst the over 55s."   » Continue Reading

At Glenbrook, we're fans of the work that Jim Bruene does with his Online Banking Report. Last week, he announced a new conference, FINOVATE 2007 to be held on October 2nd, 2007, in New York City. See Jim's NetBanker blog post for more background on the conference.

Jim has graciously extended a special discount offer to Payments News readers - use the code BLOGD1 when you register and save $100 off of the normal registration fee. If you register before the end of August, your cost to attend will be $395 vs. the normal $695 fee. This special offer is good for the first 25 Payments News readers to register. There are less than 100 seats remaining - so if you're interested in attending, be sure to register promptly!

Online Banking Report's latest issue titled "The Market for Fraud Protection, Identity Theft, and Credit Monitoring Services" recommends that "the time is right for ALL financial institutions to add identity protection/monitoring to their online offerings. The service has been optimized for Web delivery; it provides clear user benefits; it’s relatively easy to implement, and it can directly contribute to the bottom line in real, fee-based dollars, not nebulous intangibles.”

Javelin Strategy and Research has announced results from a new nationally-representative study of 2,800 consumers titled "Generation Y Banking Behaviors and Attitudes: Expanding the Banking Relationship on Their Terms". Javelin says this report "dispels myths about the banking attitudes and behaviors of Generation Y (consumers ages 18 to 29). Despite the popular belief that Gen Y is primarily focused on alternative channels and technologies, Javelin found that this generation is actually more likely to choose providers and manage their finances through a mixture of traditional and new methods."   » Continue Reading

Jim Bruene's Online Financial Innovations has announced a new conference, FINOVATE 2007, calling it "the first conference to demo the future of finance." FINOVATE 2007 will be held on October 2nd, 2007, in New York City with "twenty of the most innovative companies in the financial, banking and lending industries" offering a glimpse of the future of online and mobile banking and personal finance. See Jim's NetBanker blog post for more background on the conference.   » Continue Reading

Aite Group has announced a new report that explores the key small-business online banking strategies of large U.S. banks. According to the report, "only 6% have achieved a small-business online banking adoption rate greater than 40%. With the help of aggressive technology deployment plans, and a better understanding of customer needs, 44% of these banks hope to achieve that goal by year-end 2008."   » Continue Reading

Yodlee and Andera have announced "a strategic alliance that will unite best-of-breed technologies to provide retail financial institutions with the most comprehensive online account opening and funding solution in the market. Under the terms of the agreement, Andera will be the exclusive provider of account opening technology to Yodlee, and Yodlee will be the exclusive provider of account verification and funds transfer technology to Andera, with the combined solution being available from both companies to all financial institutions." Andera CEO Charlie Kroll provides more background on the alliance on his blog.   » Continue Reading

Investor's Business Daily reports on how banks are seeking a balance between convenience and cost when it comes to strengthening logon and transaction security. "As most people now have cell phones, financial firms are also considering simply sending users one-time pass codes by text message or automated phone call, eliminating the need for tokens. Passcode generators can also be built into cell phone handsets."

Consumer Reports has announced results from its latest "State of the Net" survey concluding that one million U.S. consumers lost more than $7 billion over the last two years to viruses, spyware, and phishing schemes and that consumers face a 1 in 4 chance of succumbing to an online threat and becoming a "cybervictim."

Wesabe has announced the release of an open-source Firefox extension that lets members automate the secure upload of bank data to their Wesabe account. After members "record" download sessions with their banks, the scripts auto-start and play to deliver updated transaction information to Wesabe.   » Continue Reading

Javelin Strategy & Research has published a new report titled "2007 Online Banking and Bill Payment: Trends, Forecasts, and Strategies for Reinvigorating Growth and Adoption" that suggests that "consumers can financially do well by doing good, improving financial control while eliminating the paper bills, statements and checks that harm the environment through forest destruction, wastewater, fuel consumption, air pollution and landfill waste."   » Continue Reading

Wells Fargo has launched Wells Fargo Mobile - "a browser- based mobile banking solution, available to all of its customers nationwide. With this new service, Wells Fargo allows its customers to access their Wells Fargo financial relationship through a web browser on their mobile device." The bank is using a new URL: http://wf.com for access to the mobile service.   » Continue Reading

99Bill has announced a strategic alliance with China Merchants Bank to jointly promote the online payment and online banking services in China.   » Continue Reading

Marc Hedlund, co-founder and chief product officer of personal financial information provider Wesabe, blogs about the new API they're introducing. He writes "We want to take the idea of a credit bureau (where businesses report their experiences with consumers so that other businesses can benefit) and turn it on its head — building instead a value bureau, where consumers can share their experiences with businesses, so all consumers can benefit." Documentation on the new Wesabe API is available online.

On of our friends, technology futurist Don Park, blogs about the early appearance of some new web applications based upon Adobe's Integrated Runtime (AIR). Don suggests that "if financial services are provided exclusively through AIR apps, customers will be less exposed to phishing attacks. AIR will have to add more crypto and other features (like secure client-side storage) before they can attract banks though."

China UnionPay Data (CUP Data) and Arcot Systems have announced a partnership that the two companies say will help minimize Internet transaction fraud. Under the licensing and development agreement, CUP Data will use Arcot’s TransFort family of solutions in the joint development of a common risk management outsourcing service for marketing to card issuers in China.   » Continue Reading

Our thanks to Jim Bruene (of NetBanker and the Online Banking Report) for listing Payments News among his top five banking industry blogs! We also enjoy all of the other banking (and related) blogs he's listed and highly recommend them as well.

Business Week has posted a recent video interview with Rajive Johri, President of First National Bank of Omaha, who talks about his strategy with his online bank, FNBO Direct.

MODASolutions has announced the results of a new consumer eCommerce survey examining the relationship between online bill payers and online shoppers. J.C. Williams Group, a global retail consulting firm, was commissioned by MODASolutions to conduct the survey and analyze the implications for the industry.   » Continue Reading

Tyfone has announced the launch of Rhapsody - a unified middleware platform designed for retail banks to leverage their channel, card and merchant assets by providing secure mobile services to their customers.   » Continue Reading

Jim Bruene's out with a new edition of the Online Banking Report - this time covering the area of "Social Personal Finance". More info about this new report is available on Jim's Netbanker blog.

Scott Berinato writes an article for CIO titled "How Online Criminals Make Themselves Tough to Find, Near Impossible to Nab". According to Berinato, "computer crime has shifted from a game of disruption to one of access. The hacker’s focus has shifted too, from developing destructive payloads to circumventing detection."

Jim Bruene blogs about his upcoming Online Banking Report issue on the topic of Social Personal Finance. Jim says it will include "a detailed look at Wesabe and Lending Club, which is catering entirely to Facebook users, and what banks should do to compete and/or partner with this new type of financial provider."

In a new post-FFIEC implementation article titled "What Banks Tell Online Customers About Their Security", Sarah D. Scalet writes for CIO Magazine writes about what she earlier called "creative" authentication. She writes about her experiences calling Citibank, Chase, and Bank of America and asking the call center reps about her concerns about online security.

APACS has highlighted this week as the 10th anniversary of online banking in the UK, calling it a significant milestone in the evolution of UK banking and payments. "Over the last ten years online banking has become increasingly popular and the number of people using the service has risen five fold in the last six years alone. In 2006 there were a record 18.1 million Britons banking online and for the first time the number of adults using internet banking exceeded those using telephone banking. Today, half of all internet users in the UK bank online."   » Continue Reading

Forrester has published a new report about how Wells Fargo's Internet Services Group "used Web site metrics, customer survey data, and internal search information to develop a home page steeped in analytics, not opinions. Forrester sat down with Stephanie Smith, senior vice president and head of online sales and marketing, and Brett Pitts, manager of the ISG's Web channel management to discuss the Web site launch and its results to date."

Arcot is holding a seminar in New York on Wednesday, June 6, titled "Taking the eFraud Out of eBanking - Preventing Identity Fraud in Financial Services".

EverBank has announced it will acquire NetBank's direct banking and small business financing divisions and mortgage servicing portfolio - a transaction that will increase Everbank's assets to approximately $7 billion, its deposits to approximately $6 billion, and its customer base to over 550,000.   » Continue Reading

Wells Fargo has announced the launch of Returned Item & Deposit Details, an enhancement to its Wells Fargo Business Online Banking service. According to the bank, "with this rollout, Wells Fargo is one of the first major U.S. financial institutions to offer small- to mid-sized business customers access to electronic images of returned items, as well as an array of other electronic images, including cleared checks and deposited checks - as part of its online banking service."   » Continue Reading

Andrea-Marie Vassou writes for Computeract!ve about a decision by HSBC to not deploy to customers chip card readers that other major banks in the UK are deploying to help deal with online banking and ecommerce fraud.

TowerGroup has announced new research finding that the "adoption of online banking by U.S. consumers is going strong, outpacing growth rates for every other method of retail banking delivery" - including everything from ATM to call centers. The firm says that "the long touted promise of online banking is now hitting its stride."   » Continue Reading

MobileCrunch writes about Geezeo Mobile, a Massachusetts-based startup company that has launched a beta service that enables mobile phone users to register multiple bank accounts and then access account balance information while on the move. A screencast provides the details on the service. A blog post by the company's CTO Theron Parlin addresses questions about the security of the service - noting that they're using CashEdge as their third party information provider.

Gemalto has announced it is the "first company to achieve the MasterCard and Visa Chip Authentication Program (CAP) 2007 certification of its Pocket reader, designed to secure authentication of cardholders for remote banking and e-commerce."   » Continue Reading

Netbanker's Jim Bruene blogs about how finally there was an article in the Wall St. Journal earlier this week about some of the harsher realities of moving from paper to electronic statements. Yes, there are some very real downsides to electronic - even though banks and brokerage houses would like us to all just accept their seemingly endless offers to go paperless. As Jim points out, the issue is simple - they need to offer us lifetime statement archives. Maybe the banks need to sign up for Amazon's S3 if they can't manage providing the online storage themselves?

Erin McCune blogs about Brad Smith's article on mobile banking in this week's edition of Wireless Week - noting one bank's claim of a 3 month ROI on their investment to provide mobile banking.

Virginia-based Cardinal Bank has announced “Go Cardinal”, a free mobile banking service that allows customers to use their cell phones and smartphones to access their accounts. According to Cardinal, consumers will be able to check balances, pay bills, transfer money, look up interest rates, locate a Cardinal Banking Center or ATM.   » Continue Reading

Copies of the presentations made at the recent Authentication and Online Trust Summit 2007 are available online. Included is a presentation on Ecommerce and Online Banking Fraud (PDF) presented by Karim Noorali, Sr. Product Manager, eBay, Victor Talamo, VP & Director Risk Management, JPMorganChase and Marcelo Camara Banco Bradesco Febraban - Brazilian Banking Organization.

Postilion, a division of S1 Corporation, has announced an alliance naming Metavante Corporation a strategic provider of electronic presentment and payment (EPP) services. Under the agreement, Postilion and Metavante will deliver an integrated self-service banking solution featuring expanded bill payment capabilities and an e-banking customer experience for financial institutions and their customers in the Americas.   » Continue Reading

Gemalto has announced that it is providing Barclays Bank with a tailor-made product supporting Barclays project to offer stronger authentication for online banking customers. According to the company, its solution "includes the authentication devices and a full service encompassing design of the readers, fulfillment and distribution to the Barclays customer. In addition, Gemalto produced a unique looking device, customised with the bank’s visual corporate identity. The contract calls for the delivery of over half a million units by the end of this year and includes options for additional deliveries into 2008." More information, including photos of the device, are available at the Barclays web site.   » Continue Reading

Online Resources has announced piloting of an expedited payments service that enables financial institutions to offer their consumers and small businesses online bill payments that are posted by billers on the same day.   » Continue Reading

A new study from ForeSee Results and Forbes.com has found that "customers who pay bills through their bank’s website are more satisfied with the bank and the online banking experience than those who don’t, and are significantly more likely to purchase additional services from the bank. The data suggests that converting online bankers to online bill paying customers represents the best opportunity for banks and credit unions to increase share of wallet while driving customers toward the most cost-efficient channel for services."   » Continue Reading

comScore has released the results of its annual online banking study - finding that "the U.S. online banking population grew 9.5 percent in 2006 versus the previous year, compared to double-digit increases in 2005 (27 percent) and 2004 (47 percent). While aggregate growth has dropped into the single-digits, several individual banks experienced substantial gains in 2006, with both Citibank and Washington Mutual increasing their number of online banking customers by more than 20 percent" - due in part to Citibank's aggressive 'e-savings' campaign and Washington Mutual's continued free checking and 5-percent statement savings accounts.   » Continue Reading

First Data Corp. has announced plans to acquire FundsXpress, a provider of online banking and bill payment services for consumers and small businesses. According to First Data, "FundsXpress has more than 500 financial institution customers, consisting primarily of community financial institutions, and First Data currently serves thousands of similar institutions coast-to-coast. The complementary capabilities of First Data and FundsXpress will result in a broad and robust suite of products for secure electronic commerce and Internet Banking transactions."   » Continue Reading

Online Banking Report has just published a new report titled "Mobile Money & Payments".   » Continue Reading

Following its acquisition of Digital Insight by Intuit five weeks ago, they've announced Personal FinanceWorks and Small Business FinanceWorks - saying these two products are "expected to lead the next generation of online banking."   » Continue Reading

Celent analyst Dan Schatt has published a new report titled "Retail Internet Banking Vendors: Luring the Laggards" that focuses on the features and options that banks will need to offer to attract those consumers who haven't yet signed up for online banking.

The European Financial Management & Marketing Association has announced a conference titled "Trust in Online Finance - Creating Safe and Trusted Online Offerings" to be held in Brussels on Thursday-Friday, April 26-27.   » Continue Reading

In an article titled ING Direct Makes Checking (Almost) Fun Again, NetBanker's Jim Bruene reviews in detail the cool features of ING Direct's Electric Orange checking account - and critiques their decision to not provide an in-hand paper check option for customers and suggests they need to get with it and offer remote deposit capture capability as well.

In an article in this morning's Wall St. Journal titled "Mobile Banking Shifts Into Higher Gear," Jane Kim reports on the resurgence in interest among major banks in offering mobile banking services. Kim quotes Celent analyst Dan Schatt who "says he expects that by the end of this year, 10% of people who currently bank online will use mobile banking." Kim also notes that some consumers think mobile payments when they hear about mobile banking - and are disappointed when mobile payments isn't part of a bank's mobile service offering.

NetBanker's Jim Bruene reports that Bank of America has begun using its bankofamerica.mobi domain - likely in preparation for its new mobile banking initiative announced last week. Bruene points out that he found a number of banks that had apparently failed to register a .mobi (for "mobile") domain name. Click here to visit www.bankofamerica.mobi.

CheckFree Corporation has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase Corillian Corporation, a provider of Internet banking software and services, for a purchase price of about $245 million.   » Continue Reading