Loans available online

Syndicate Bank, a public sector bank headquartered in Manipal, has revealed a new service to enable customers apply for loans online, says Business Standard.

The filled-in application in the prescribed format, once posted online, will go to the bank's central processing server. The bank executives can see the request as a pop-up, and call the applicants for a physical meeting, if satisfied with the parameters.

Originally launched to enable small and medium enterprises access credit facilities, the service has now been extended to students, professionals, self-employed persons, traders, corporates, agriculturists and individuals.

According to AT&T computing researcher William Cheswick, banks should stop forcing customers to create long, alphanumeric passwords because they can't protect against today's threats, states ZDNet Australia.

Speaking at AusCERT 2008 on the Gold Coast this week, Cheswick told delegates to stop inflicting staff and consumers with old-fashioned rules on password management, including advising consumers not to write them down or imposing strict rules about what characters can be used.

Requiring passwords to be at least seven characters long, but not more than 15, that are case sensitive with at least one number but no spaces, is simply "arcane password fascism", said Cheswick.

Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), in conjunction with mobile banking technology providers ClairMail and mFoundry, has unveiled a new m-banking application, reports Bank Systems & Technology.

FIS Mobile Banking and Bill Pay is a two-way mobile banking and bill pay product suite that encompasses the three modes of mobile banking: SMS/text, mobile Web and downloadable application solutions.

The solution takes advantage of a jointly developed offering by mFoundry and ClairMail that integrates ClairMail's two-way mobile banking and payments platform and SMS/text and mobile Web solutions with mFoundry's downloadable Spotlight application.