BANK BYTES

--First Financial, Hamilton, Ohio, has licensed the Horizon Banking System from Alltel, Little Rock, Ark., to speed access to customer relationshipinformation.

--SunTrust Banks, Atlanta, announced that it has acquired 475,000 online banking customers, or 25% of its checking account customer base.

--The U.S. Department of the Treasury has selected Lynk Systems, Atlanta, to provide technology for its U.S. Debit Card initiative.

--Wells Fargo, San Francisco, has enhanced its Payment Manager cash management service to include international ACH payments.

--Banknorth Group, Portland, Me., has introduced online banking services for its more than one million customers in six states.

--Scotiabank, Toronto, has signed a $US600 million contract with IBM, White Plains, N.Y., under which IBM will manage Scotiabank's data centers, branches, ATMs, and desktop systems.

--Innoventry, San Francisco, announced that it has installed its 1,000th RPM automated check cashing machine, which employs face-recognition technology.

--NYCE, Woodcliff Lake, N.J., has established an Emerging Network Payments group, focused on extending NYCE's real-time transaction processing capabilities beyond ATM and online debit services.

--SunTrust Credit, Little Rock, Ark., is using credit decision software from eCredit.com, Dedham, Mass., for automated approval of small business financing and revolving lines of credit.

--Bank of New York has launched Interactive Portfolio Flow Monitor, a real-time, online global capital flows research tool.

--Fidelity National Bank, Atlanta, is offering the eCash Management System from FiServ, Milwaukee, to its corporate customers.

--MasterCard International, Purchase, N.Y., has enhanced its Remote Payment and Presentment Service to match bill payments with electronically-presented Open Financial Exchange (OFX) bills.

--University of Wisconsin Credit Union, Madison, Wis., has installed the ZEUS for MISER enterprise automation system, co-developed by Aurum Technology, Plano, Texas and Software Dynamics, West Hills, Calif.

--Union Bank of California, San Francisco, has installed the Retail Banking Sales Platform from KPMG Consulting, McLean, Va., at its 250 branches.

--Bank of America, Charlotte, N.C., has developed a new CRM system employing e-business software from Siebel Systems, San Francisco.

--Union Planters, Memphis, Tenn., has installed image-based returns software from Check Solutions, also of Memphis.