Finextra Research: Latest financial technology news, analysis, jobs and features.

12 Mar, 2010

State Bank of India signs for 300 solar-powered ATMs State Bank of India (SBI) is rolling out over 300 solar-powered ATMs from local vendor Vortex Engineering at rural and semi-urban sites across the country.

11 Mar, 2010

UK government provides CGAP with £8m for m-banking The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has committed £8 million to a technology programme run by microfinance group CGAP designed to increase access to financial services for the poor.

11 Mar, 2010

First Data CEO Capellas steps down as firm narrows Q4 losses First Data chairman and CEO Michael Capellas is stepping down to take up a role at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR). Meanwhile, the e-payments processor has narrowed its fourth quarter net losses on higher revenues and lower charges.

11 Mar, 2010

Film futures exchange set for launch US firm Media Derivatives claims it will pip rival Cantor Fitzgerald to launch the first electronic futures exchange for trading movie box office receipt contracts.

11 Mar, 2010

HSBC admits IT employee stole data on 15,000 private client accounts HSBC has admitted that an IT employee at its Swiss private banking arm stole the account details of some 15,000 customers and passed them on to French tax authorities.

10 Mar, 2010

SIA-SSB reports Bank of Italy contract win Bank of Italy has awarded SIA-SSB a five year, EUR23 million, contract to manage its interbank computerised archive of bad cheques and payment cards.

10 Mar, 2010

Lindsay Lohan sues E*Trade for $100m over 'milkaholic' TV ad Actress Lindsay Lohan is suing E*Trade for $100 million, claiming a "milkaholic" baby in a recent TV commercial from the online broker is based on her.

10 Mar, 2010

Tullett Prebon in takeover talks Shares in Tullett Prebon have jumped 17% after the UK interdealer broker confirmed that it was in talks with a potential acquirer.

10 Mar, 2010

Banks failing to protect small businesses from cyber crime wave The US banking industry is failing to protect its small business customers from a destructive epidemic of cyberfraud that is sweeping the nation, according to research by Guardian Analytics and Ponemon Institute

10 Mar, 2010

Turquoise confirms management line up The new management team at Turquoise has been confirmed, with CEO David Lester joined by Baikal head of technology Mark Ryland.

10 Mar, 2010

Citi exposes 600,000 social security numbers US banking giant Citi has been forced to apologise to around 600,000 customers after sending them year-end tax statements through the post with social security numbers printed on the outside of the envelopes.

10 Mar, 2010

UK card fraud plummets Fraud losses on UK cards tumbled by more than a quarter - to £440 million - last year, the first fall since 2006, according to figures from the UK Cards Association.

09 Mar, 2010

Digital cash set to usurp paper and plastic - Standard Bank Physical cash and its byproducts such as plastic debit and credit cards will soon be usurped by safer and more efficient mobile and digital money services says Standard Bank director Herman Singh, 18 months on from the launch of the South African bank's virtual currency mimoney.

09 Mar, 2010

Barclays business customers to get contactless as standard Barclays says that from March all new and reissued Visa debit cards for business customers will come with contactless technology as standard.

09 Mar, 2010

PayPal tells users to download anti-phishing software PayPal is asking UK customers to download software from Iconix to help identify genuine e-mails sent by the eBay unit and weed out phishing messages.

09 Mar, 2010

UBS plans European dark pool Swiss bank UBS is planning to launch a dark pool multilateral trading facility (MTF) for crossing orders in European stocks.

08 Mar, 2010

IPF Association formed to simplify global credit transfers A group of 21 banks, clearing houses and associated payment service providers have launched the International Payments Framework Association (IPFA).

08 Mar, 2010

Heartland breach still hitting banks A bank in Colorado has begun blocking point of sale purchases over concerns debit cards may have been compromised by the massive data breach that hit Heartland Payment Systems in 2008.

08 Mar, 2010

Canada dumps paper cash for plastic Canada is set to dump cotton paper bank notes in favour of longer lasing plastic versions next year.

08 Mar, 2010

UK banking revolution: Metro wins FSA license; Virgin to charge monthly account fee The Financial Services Authority has granted a banking license to start-up Metro Bank, which promises to usher in a new era of financial services provision based on old-fashioned deposit-based lending and superior customer service standards.