Posted by Mark Brousseau
Interesting article from the Washington Post on the latest developments on a congressional proposal that would give banks immunity from the DataTreasury patent infringement lawsuit:
Immunity Plan for Banks Loses Backer
Billions of Dollars at Stake Over Patent
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 12, 2008; D03
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) has withdrawn his support for legislation he had written that could save the nation's banks billions of dollars by granting them immunity from a lawsuit accusing them of infringing a check-processing patent.
Sessions's about-face reduces the odds that the measure, which has been advocated by banking interests, will become law this year.
Sessions announced his decision in a letter last week to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.). In the letter, he noted that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said his amendment to a larger bill could affect more patented check technologies than originally thought and might undercut U.S. patent-protection efforts with trading partners.
"I wanted you to be aware of these developments," Sessions wrote to Leahy.
The Sessions amendment was adopted without dissent by the committee in July. It would prevent a small Texas company, DataTreasury, from collecting damages from banks for infringing on its patented method for digitally scanning, sending and archiving checks. The patents were upheld last summer by the Patent and Trademark Office after they were challenged.
Although the amendment would not invalidate DataTreasury's patents, it would spare the banks from having to pay for infringing them should the courts decide that was warranted. If DataTreasury collected a royalty of just a couple of cents per check, the amount would run into billions of dollars.
Under the amendment, the government would have to pay $1 billion to DataTreasury over 10 years as compensation for taking the company's property, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office.
The Sessions amendment is part of a patent-overhaul bill that stalled in the Senate this week. A senior committee aide said the outlook for the amendment is uncertain.
Friday, April 18, 2008
SunTrust Outsources Operations
Posted by Mark Brousseau
Interesting article on the front page of the business section of today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution regarding the bank's decision to outsource some of its operations to Symcor:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/17/08
After nearly a year of studying the possibility of outsourcing some back-office jobs to a Canadian company, SunTrust Banks Inc. said Thursday it signed a 10-year deal that will reduce head count by 1,554 positions, or roughly 5 percent of its 32,323-member work force.
The deal with Symcor Inc., which is headquartered in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, calls for it to handle check and payment processing as well as statement generation.
Starting Aug. 1, Symcor will take over those operations, and 1,500 of the affected employees will be transferred to its control.
The remaining 54 jobs will be eliminated, SunTrust spokesman Mike McCoy said. However, it's possible those losing their jobs will be offered jobs elsewhere within the financial institution.
The jobs affected are in Atlanta, Baltimore, Memphis, Miami, Orlando, Durham, N.C., and Richmond.
McCoy declined to give the specific number of jobs in each location that are transferring to Symcor, and the company did not characterize the nature of the 54 positions that will be eliminated.
The move is part of SunTrust's long-term strategy to cut costs to deploy money into growing the core banking business. That strategy, dubbed E2 for Excellence in Execution, is pegged to save SunTrust about $530 million by 2009. SunTrust said in May last year it was considering outsourcing those jobs.
Interesting article on the front page of the business section of today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution regarding the bank's decision to outsource some of its operations to Symcor:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/17/08
After nearly a year of studying the possibility of outsourcing some back-office jobs to a Canadian company, SunTrust Banks Inc. said Thursday it signed a 10-year deal that will reduce head count by 1,554 positions, or roughly 5 percent of its 32,323-member work force.
The deal with Symcor Inc., which is headquartered in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, calls for it to handle check and payment processing as well as statement generation.
Starting Aug. 1, Symcor will take over those operations, and 1,500 of the affected employees will be transferred to its control.
The remaining 54 jobs will be eliminated, SunTrust spokesman Mike McCoy said. However, it's possible those losing their jobs will be offered jobs elsewhere within the financial institution.
The jobs affected are in Atlanta, Baltimore, Memphis, Miami, Orlando, Durham, N.C., and Richmond.
McCoy declined to give the specific number of jobs in each location that are transferring to Symcor, and the company did not characterize the nature of the 54 positions that will be eliminated.
The move is part of SunTrust's long-term strategy to cut costs to deploy money into growing the core banking business. That strategy, dubbed E2 for Excellence in Execution, is pegged to save SunTrust about $530 million by 2009. SunTrust said in May last year it was considering outsourcing those jobs.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Could Free Scanners Drive RDC?
By Mark Brousseau
Could free scanners hold the key to even wider remote deposit capture adoption? That’s what two new studies suggest.
A survey by Boston-based Aite Group found that 58 percent of small businesses that are not using remote deposit capture say free scanners from their banks would make their adoption of the technology more likely – topping any other implementation factor. Aite Group analyst Christine Barry notes that small businesses are more price-sensitive in general.
No kidding. Small businesses – those with less than $500,000 in revenue annually – expect scanners to cost about $100 or less, according to research from Celent LLC. Even larger businesses – those with at least $5 million in revenues – expect scanners to cost $210. These are numbers that will surely make the check scanner manufacturers gag.
Celent notes that only 15 percent of banks now offer clients free scanners, with half requiring them to buy the machines upfront, either from the bank or from a technology vendor. One-third of banks absorb scanner costs into the monthly fees for their remote capture service.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
Could free scanners hold the key to even wider remote deposit capture adoption? That’s what two new studies suggest.
A survey by Boston-based Aite Group found that 58 percent of small businesses that are not using remote deposit capture say free scanners from their banks would make their adoption of the technology more likely – topping any other implementation factor. Aite Group analyst Christine Barry notes that small businesses are more price-sensitive in general.
No kidding. Small businesses – those with less than $500,000 in revenue annually – expect scanners to cost about $100 or less, according to research from Celent LLC. Even larger businesses – those with at least $5 million in revenues – expect scanners to cost $210. These are numbers that will surely make the check scanner manufacturers gag.
Celent notes that only 15 percent of banks now offer clients free scanners, with half requiring them to buy the machines upfront, either from the bank or from a technology vendor. One-third of banks absorb scanner costs into the monthly fees for their remote capture service.
What do you think? Post your comments below.
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