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Ivan Schneider

Profile of Ivan Schneider

Blog Posts: 618
Articles by Ivan Schneider

5 Critical Strategies for Mobile Banking Security

7/18/2012
To the best of their ability, banks need to ensure that their services are available and secured within any mobile phone configuration. Because absolute security is nearly impossible to attain in the mobile world, banks’ back-end systems have to be prepared to detect anomalies and fraudulent activity in the event that a front-end channel has been compromised.

The Next Generation

3/28/2006
Demographics is destiny, and in this month's issue, my colleague Marianne Kolbasuk McGee from InformationWeek lays out the undeniable facts: We're all getting older.

Inside the Firewall

2/27/2006
Bank security expert hobnobs with actor playing a bank security expert.

Health or Savings (But not Both)

2/27/2006
Banks are being given the chance to get a lift from the multibillion-dollar opportunity offered by health savings accounts (HSAs).

State of the Union: What's an HSA?

2/7/2006
Health Savings Accounts? Sounds innocuous enough. But what is it really? Previously, the tax code provided preferential treatment for health insurance paid by an employer, as well as a portion of other medical expenses for those who itemize. Insurance companies get to invest these funds in return for paying for the medical care of the insured. Now, this transfer from the employer to the insurer of tax-free funds is being divided into two separate streams. The first stream replicates the old

Friday feature on HSAs...

1/30/2006
"Bank of America, J. P. Morgan Chase, Fidelity Investments and hundreds of others are hoping to capitalize on the latest wrinkle in medical care paid by consumers: health savings accounts ..." Health Savings Accounts Attract Wall St. New York Times (registration required) January 27, 2006
HSAs are slated to be one of the key themes in the State of the Union speech. Gee, I wonder if it will bec

Sad Sunday story...

1/30/2006
"On the afternoon my mother died, she left work early. Her day as a computer programmer at Chase Manhattan Bank had skidded to an abrupt stop courtesy of a systemwide computer failure, and all employees got the afternoon off." ...
Two Decembers: Loss and Redemption New York Times (registration required) January 29, 2006

For The Love Of Labor

1/27/2006
Amex will use Sun enterprise middleware to help the company develop portal applications and enhance its identity management services.

Taking A Stand...On What?

1/26/2006
True, some bankers are willing to take a stand on social issues such as the potential abuse of eminent domain. But there's a real leadership gap when it comes to looking at the big picture — social and environmental sustainability in lending. Watchdog group BANKTrack rated 39 banks on the basis of 13 categories: human rights; labour rights; indigenous people; climate and e

BB&T Takes Stand on Eminent Domain

1/25/2006
Taking a stand on last year's controversial Supreme Court ruling, Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T won't lend to developers building on land taken from private citizens through the power of eminent domain.
"The idea that a citizen's property can be taken by the government solely for private use is extremely misguided, in fact it's just plain wrong," said BB&T Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Allison.
Read the

Talk to the Wal

1/25/2006
Apparently, Executive Editor Ivan Schneider isn't the only one who thinks The Bank of Wal-Mart isn't such a hot idea. Two U.S. Congressmen -- including Thomas Bliley, one of the forces behind the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act -- also responded to The WSJ's Wal-Mart editorial. Here are excerpts from their letters, which are available in their entirety at www.icba.org.

Size Matters

1/25/2006
Who's going to shake up the U.S. market in 2006?

Arizona Dreamin'

1/25/2006
According to the FTC:
The major metropolitan areas with the highest per capita rates of reported identity theft were Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale, AZ; Las Vegas/Paradise, NV; and Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario, CA.
The mythical conception of the American West is a place where you go to reinvent yourself, to craft a new identity. I guess some people are taking that literally. FTC Releases Top 10 Consumer Fraud Complaint Categories: Identity Theft Again Leads the List

BS&T: The Movie

1/24/2006
I've always wondered why the lawyers get all of the attention in Hollywood, when banking is obviously the more exciting industry. Finally, Hollywood has recognized what we've known all along, with the upcoming release of a new film for the Bank Systems & Technology set, a film with the Harrison Ford seal of approval. From the "Firewall" Web site:
Computer security specialist Jack Stanfield (HARRISON FORD) works for the Seattle

Locking Down the New Year

1/3/2006
All of the recent chatter about enhanced security guidance in the banking industry has made for a rather scary computing environment.

Model Risk

12/14/2005
Does your bank rely too much on financial modeling in risk management? If so, you may be vulnerable to "model risk." And no, that's not the risk of being hounded by paparazzi. For more, read the FDIC's article. Tip of the hat to Goodwin Proctor LLP's "Financial Services Alert" newsletter.

Heroes and Villains

12/13/2005
It's celebration time -- today's the day of CMP's annual holiday party. As such, upon arriving to the office this morning, each employee at CMP received a gift from our new CEO, Steve Weitzner. He's already made a real impact on the company as a communicative leader who knows what has to be done, as someone who's come up through the ranks. Since I make it my business to know about all sorts of things before they happen, the gift was not exactly a surprise. But I certainly didn't expect two g

Bye-bye BAI?

12/1/2005
From the Financial Insights report: "BAI RDS: R.I.P.?"
RDS has been in decline since the shows of 1999 and 2000. Institution attendance continues to spiral downward. Participants are by and large not technology decision makers. There are no 'hot' technologies to spike interest. In short, "No buzz-No bodies". Competing with RDS (and winning) are vendor client conferences that attract senior executives and have recently shown signs of becoming collaborative efforts of non-competiti

Cheating on the ID Challenge

11/30/2005
The personal data required to obtain a full dossier on someone seems insufficient compared to the prize.

What, Me Worry?

11/29/2005
One of these days I'd like to pick up the paper and read an article about how there was a crisis averted due to superior long-range planning by a government agency. In the meantime, we get the GAO describing the inability of various government agencies to come to a consensus on who should be in charge of delivering expertise in anti-terrorist-financing to countries that need our help. I truly hope they figure it out before FEMA gets involved. The NY Times story: U.S. Lacks Plan to Curb Terro

Cheating on the ID Challenge

11/14/2005
Since September 2005, the three major consumer credit reporting agencies have been required to provide upon request free annual credit reports. So, to see what the agencies have on record, I sent many of my personally-identifying characteristics through a secure Internet connection in exchange for comprehensive reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Innovative CIOs: Moving On Up

11/8/2005
Back in business school, on my first day of the required Marketing class, the professor put a slide up on the board that said something to the effect of: "More of today's CEOs have risen to the top through the marketing function than from any other area of business." Of course, hyping one's own field of interest is something you'd certanly expect a marketing professor to do. Nevertheless, the slide made an impression. Was there something about Marketing, compared to Finance, Operations or anyth

Unfrozen Caveman Developer

11/3/2005
Before becoming a chronicler of the banking industry, I worked as a database developer. I mostly worked with an obscure hierarchical database tool called Omnis, which had the claim to fame of being the first cross-platform (Mac/PC) database for the first GUI version of Windows. Subsequently, I left the programming game to get an MBA and then, to make a long story short, here I am. Now that I'm also managing the Web sites for CMP Media's financial industry publications, I've found it necessary

Banking Media Hot and Cold

11/1/2005
Technology pundits have been debating about whether Apple Computer's video iPod, and by extension, video cell phones and other video-enabled mobile devices, will take off. I wouldn't bet against it, but not because I think that we'll watch repurposed television programs on these devices. Rather, it's because there's an enormous potential to create custom media clips designed expressly for the new delivery channel. While the focus has been on Disney/ABC programs and music video, it's business-rel

Podcasts for Bankers

10/31/2005
IBM's banking industry leaders Mark Greene and Rusty Wiley have been on the road talking about their vision for the industry. Now, you can take their viewpoints on the road using your portable digital audio player with their latest podcast. I sense the emergence of a media trend...

Don't Be Evil

10/27/2005
When banking regulators expressed concern about borrowers getting deeper and deeper into credit card debt, the major card-issuing banks increased their minimum payment requirements from two percent to four percent of outstanding balances. But one bank's making a high-profile move in the other direction.

Today on the News Show

10/19/2005
My colleague Chris Murphy reports on the move to two-factor authentication in today's episode of the News Show.

Remote Deposit Capture: Thick or Thin?

10/18/2005
This week's newsletter has a story on Wachovia's implementation of remote deposit capture (RDC). In it, we revisit the debate over whether RDC is best done using thick-client or a thin-client software. Given the obvious benefits of the software and the competitive need for it, what's your take on the relative merits of the two approaches? Or does it matter? Please leave your comments on this blog entry.

All Together Now

10/18/2005
With the FFIEC's guidance stating that banks should implement two-factor authentication for Internet services that involve sensitive customer information or movement of funds, the status quo in information security in banking has been quickly overturned.

Translated from the Greenspanese...

10/12/2005
From Greenspan's speech to the National Italian American Foundation: Conceptual advances in pricing options and other complex financial products, along with improvements in computer and telecommunications technologies, have significantly lowered the costs of, and expanded the opportunities for, hedging risks that were not readily deflected in earlier decades. The new instruments of risk dispersa

Katrina and the Titanic

10/7/2005
When the lookout on the Titanic warned the officers on the bridge that the infamous iceberg was looming ahead, first officer William McMaster Murdoch had the engines stopped and reversed. He then ordered the quartermaster to turn the ship hard to port. Bad move. The iceberg sliced through the first five of 16 transverse compartments of the hull. If the ship had hit the iceberg head on, the ship likely would have limped home, and we would have been spared the sight of Leonardo DiCaprio on the bow

All Hail the Wisdom of the Senate

10/6/2005
Letter from House Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) "The loss of income and additional expenses that these victims incur as a result of a hurricane or other natural disaster are implicitly the kind of special circumstances that Congress envisioned would constitute an exception to the [Bankruptcy] Act's means test reforms." The

The Toughest Job in Banking

10/5/2005
Here's a New York Times story about Liberty Bank and Trust, which is trying to recover from Katrina, as well as the steady depletion of its assets as customers withdraw their savings.

Stop Making Cents

10/5/2005
Bank of America Offers Round-Up Savings Account Source: Reuters.com
If you sign up for Bank of America's new service, every time you charge something on a debit card, they'll round up to the nearest dollar and put the loose change in a savings account. Now if they only rounded up to the nearest $100, we would have a fighting chance of increas

Treasury Says, "Go Direct!"

9/30/2005
The U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Banks, as part of the Go Direct campaign, will begin a national television advertising campaign on Oct. 4 to motivate Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients to switch to direct deposit. The ads will air for three to four days a week around the beginning of each month - the time when many people get their federal benefit checks in the mail. The ads will be on a variety of cable networks including

Coming Soon to an Informercial Near You!

9/29/2005
Do you have a lot of loose change lying around the house? Don't want to spend time putting it into those pesky coin sleeves? No "Coinstar" machine at your local grocery store? Then this service is for you. Just pack up your coins and mail them to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where they'll count the coins for you and send you a check within 7 to 10 days! You can then use the money to buy comic books, so that you can assess the relative riskiness of

Life Insurance for Comic-Book Characters

9/29/2005
Asked to assess the life insurance needs of five fictional characters, Americans believe superheroes Batman and Spiderman have much greater needs than cartoon parents Fred Flintstone and Marge Simpson.
Source: PR Newswire
Only 18 percent answered "none of the above/don't know," a category combining those who realize that fictional characters do not need life insurance with those who simply can't decide whethe

The Brazilian Job

9/29/2005
The thieves spent three months tunneling under a busy city avenue in Fortaleza, about 1,500 miles northeast of Sao Paulo, to break into the Central Bank vault and steal the equivalent of $70 million in Brazilian currency, the real.
Source: Associated Press
Georg

HMDA and You

9/28/2005
Yesterday's webcast on the implications of the release of data under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act ("HMDA") was quite a success. Although the intent of HMDA was to provide transparency on lending practices, perhaps its most significant effect will stem from the ability for mortgage lenders to use this as a new source of competitive data on 8,853 financial institutions. The data includes information on loan pricing and the type of loan (e.g. loans for manufactured housing, loans secured by fi

Swedish Retirement Plan

9/28/2005
The chairman of Swedish bank Svenska Handelsbanken AB will step down from his post next year to go sailing around the world, the bank said Tuesday.
Source: Associated Press.
Searching for acquisitions, perhaps?

Where Credit is Due

9/28/2005
Party's over, folks.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - Credit card loan delinquencies reached a record high of 4.81 percent of accounts in the second quarter of this year, according to the American Bankers Association's Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin.

In calculating these results, ABA incorporated revised information on the first quarter delinquency rates. As a result, the credit card loan delinquency ratio for the first qua

Back In The U.S.S.A.

9/27/2005
I just flew back from Europe, and boy, are my arms tired - from shlepping my luggage from place to place. It was a three-week, seven-country tour of Europe where I freely mixed business and pleasure. (If you like your work, it's always a pleasure.)

Broken by Katrina

9/7/2005
Those whose lives were irrevocably ripped apart by Hurricane Katrina face numerous pressing issues, including but not limited to finding water, food and shelter, locating one's family members, and coping with the shock and grief stemming from the immense scale of death and displacement. There's also the matter of determining whether the loss of property is total or partial, and making the decision on whether to uproot from the Gulf Coast or plan for rebuilding.

Hurricane Katrina

9/5/2005
The horrifying devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast calls for a unified and rapid response. From humanitarian assistance to financial forebearance, the need is great and the solutions are difficult. What's certain is that the lives, homes and businesses of the people across an entire region of the country will certainly need the support of the financial industry. Several questions come to mind: How has the disaster affected you and your institution? How can banks help peo

Welcome Home, Chickens

8/30/2005
My credit union recently switched Internet banking providers from Galaxy Plus Credit Union Systems to Digital Insight.

Making Time for Real Time

8/30/2005
Cable & Wireless makes gains in attracting information providers to its real-time data feed.
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