Fiserv has hit back at a story in Sunday's Observer and Guardian newspapers which alleged serious security breaches in its Internet banking software. Fiserv describes the article as "incorrect and misleading".
The London-based newspaper ran a story based on an approach from bank customer, Ralph Dressel, who had three sample printouts which appeared to reveal account details of customers at the Amalgamated Bank of Chicago, the Bank of Oklahoma and the Sovereign Bank in Connecticut. As well as seeing account details, Dressel claims he could have changed PIN numbers or transferred money to his own account.
Fiserv, which claims to run more than 200 million accounts online, looking after more than £15bn of customers' money, says Dressel accessed only demonstration accounts at sites maintained for clients of a Fiserv servicing unit. The demonstration accounts contain only fictitious data used for training and sales purposes.
"We maintain the strictest security on all of our systems - whether for Internet banking or core account processing," insists Leslie Muma, Fiserv president and CEO. "At no time were any of our systems in danger of being compromised."