C-punks, I have somr wire clippings that I think are more relevant to this list's stated topic that the constant personal attacks, rants, and newbie questions. I don't have the resources to send them out on request like JYA does. Would anyone be interested in my sending more materials like this to this list? BANKS BANK ON INTERNET Internet banking is poised for a rapid growth in Europe according to a survey of the European banking industry by Booz Allen & Hamilton. Thirty seven banks took part in the survey, which found that 80% were planning to upgrade existing Web sites to incorporate most traditional banking transactions within three years. There was also signs of the emergence of the first Internet-only banks. Wide-spread concerns about security are more an issue of perception than of real obstacles, according to Claus Nehmzow, a principal of BAH. The survey predicts that over the next five years 2,000 European banking institutions will be online. -- New Media Age, 9/12/96 IBM TEAMS WITH 15 BANKS TO FORM INTEGRION FINANCIAL NETWORK Fifteen of North America's leading banks and IBM today announced the formation of Integrion Financial Network. Beginning in early 1997, Integrion will offer a broad range of interactive banking and electronic commerce services to banks in the U.S. and Canada. Representing over half the retail banking population in North America, over 60 million households, Integrion will be owned and operated by IBM and the member banks (ABN AMRO, BANC ONE, Bank of America, Barnett Bank, Comerica, First Bank Systems, First Chicago NBD Fleet Financial Group, KeyCorp, Mellon Bank, Michigan National Bank, NationsBank, PNC Bank, Royal Bank of Canada and Washington Mutual). This ownership structure enables banks to play a central role in determining the manner and format in which these services are offered to their customers, ensuring that electronic banking services are consistent with the bank's full range of services, are branded by the bank, and that the bank's customers receive maximum benefit. -- Business Wire, 9/9/96 IN CHECK FRAUD WAR, SIMPLE IDEA MAKES ITS MARK In Texas, Nevada, Arizona and more than a dozen other U.S. states, bankers are fighting check fraud by equipping tellers with ink pads so they can affix the thumbprint of customers who are not regular patrons of the bank to the backs of checks they cash. Banks lose millions each year to organized crime and gang members who steal checks or duplicate payroll checks and then cash them. These crimes cost banks $815 million in 1993 alone, more than 12 times what they lost in robberies, according to American Bankers Association statistics. Said Dawn Duplantier of the Texas Bankers Association, which began selling its member banks the pads last December, "Across the board in the first six months, we have had a 70% decrease" in check fraud," she said. Bank of America, the third-largest U.S. bank, began taking prints at 43 of its branches in Nevada in 1994. Since then the bank has seen a 40% to 60% decline in check fraud, said Robert Randolph, liaison officer for the bank's investigative services division. -- Int'l Herald Tribune, 9/7/96 DAIWA SECURITIES SELLS U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES OVER INTERNET Daiwa Securities America has expanded its trading room into cyberspace by allowing dealers to negotiate purchases and sales of U.S. government securities through the Internet, the worldwide computer network. The move will let clients log on to the bank's network using any Internet Service Provider and effectively close a deal online. Clients can access Daiwa's network through the bank's Web site -- located at http://www.oddlot.com -- and from t here place their buy or sell orders. To skirt the security holes, Daiwa is using several mechanisms, ranging from Internet firewalls to Secure ID cards, in an effort to prevent hackers from placing rogue or phony deals into the system. "Anybody can hook up to our Web site, but they can only get as far as our firewall. Then they have to have a Secure ID card and an account open with Daiwa," a spokesman said. The "secure IDs" are in fact small electronic cards that give the user an entrance code, which change s every 60 seconds, to a computer network. The system is now available only for financial institutions and brokerage houses interested in dealing with Daiwa. No individuals are allowed to open personal accounts and trade using the system at this point. -- Reuter, 9/6/96 BANKS SHOULD PREPARE TO CASH IN ON E-CASH According to a new study by Killen & Associates, banks can regain the leadership position in payments by leveraging their payment transaction infrastructure to support electronic cash (E-cash) services. "By 2005, E-cash transactions will escalate to almost 30 billion," stated Michael Killen, president of the market research firm. "Non-banks see this as a new opportunity to carve further market share away from the banking industry. All will compete for new revenue streams including Internet-based micropaym ents and 'by the byte electronic commerce purchasing services. E-cash, including secured credit/debit cards, stored-value cards, smart cards, ATM derivatives, and other forms, is less expensive for business than handling cash or standard credit cards and more secure than checks," Killen continued. "Opportunities will open for financial and other product and services players, including ATM vendors; ATM/POS terminal manufacturers and network suppliers, including bank-owned networks, American Express, Deluxe, ACS, and VeriFone; and cash handling/cash management services firms." -- Business Wire, 9/4/96 THE CHECK IS NOT IN THE MAIL The federal government must stop using checks by Jan. 1, 1999. Can the rest of us be far behind? A quarter-century ago digital visionaries were predicting the checkless society, and the number of checks written in the U.S. has tripled since then, to 61 billion in 1995. But one day, the predictions will come true, and that day moved closer with a little-noticed provision in April's federal budget compromise. It will force the biggest check writer of all -- the U.S. government -- to abandon paper checks almo st entirely by Jan. 1, 1999. After that, virtually all 1 billion federal payments made each year, including Social Security, must be made through electronic funds transfers. Yet, 90% of U.S. banks, and some federal agencies, aren't capable of electronically transmitting and receiving key information that accompanies vendor payments. The new law will force them all to get moving. -- Forbes, 9/9/96 --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps