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In an effort to eliminate the risk in its online banking transactions, the Oregon-based Pacific Continental Bank said that it will be using newly designed fraud analytics software, designed by Guardian Analytics, to track down all suspicious banking activities in its network.

Online attacks to small community banks – like the $1.2-billion Pacific Continental – is relatively lower compared to bigger banks.

However, Pacific Continental does not want to take the risk of being sued for failing to perform its duty and protect its clients from online fraud, the company said in a statement.

The software, which is called FraudMap, will help the Pacific Continental to track down, monitor, and analyze all types of online transactions. Teams of analysts will then monitor all activities on an hourly basis, looking for unusual and suspicious transactions – the team will then call the clients to inform or investigate the movements in the accounts.

However, the alerts will only come up on a daily basis, which is relatively inefficient when it comes to catching hacking activities online. But Guardian Analytics said that it will improve the system in the coming months, saying that the platform is still new and learning the customers’ behavior.

Meanwhile, many financial experts said that the new software remained to be unpopular among small banks in the United States since majority of them have not yet experienced such attack on their online system.

The experts added that most of the online banking clients are more worried on the inconvenience of the banking system rather than their account security.

Government-backed Dublin lender Anglo Irish Bank on Thursday announced its payout plans for investors, saying that junior bondholders will most likely suffer heavy losses on the company’s $4.9 billion (3.5 billion euro) investments.

Anglo Irish, the first company to announce loan defaults in the Ireland since the banking crisis began some two years ago, said that the two lowest tiers of bondholders would be given payouts 20 percent and 5 percent of their original investments, respectively.

The Irish government has been trying to cut further losses from a 45 billion euro bailout package offered to five debt-crippled banks – including Anglo Irish. The cost of the bailout has led to [European] record deficit of 32 percent of Ireland’s gross domestic product.

According to Anglo Irish, the new government has assured some 1.575 billion worth of bonds will be offered to bondholders, which will expire by 2014, 2016, and 2017; while the company will pay interest-bearing bonds by December next year – however, only one-fifth of the investment amount or 315 million euro will be paid.

Many analysts said that majority of the junior bondholders at Anglo – most of which are hedge funds that has difficulty in selling the bank’s securities – would grab the opportunity of having a piece of their investment amount before escaping the struggling lender.

Meanwhile, the experts said that the move was not surprising since the company has been flagging it for weeks.

Earlier, the Irish government had earlier offered a guarantee to subordinated bonds of the firm which expires on October 1.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) has shut down at least seven more banks due to failures, which brings the total number of banks closed down this year to some 139, the regulator said in a statement on Friday.

The closed down banks include Hillcrest Bank of Overland Park in Kansas – the biggest in the group, which has an estimated $1.65 billion in total assets and $1.54 billion in total number of deposits.

According to the FDIC, Boston-based NBH Holdings Corp subsidiary – also called Hillcrest Bank – will assume all the deposits of Hillcrest. The new NBH subsidiary also agreed to purchase all assets of the failed bank.

Also included in the closure order were First Suburban National Bank, Maywood, Illinois; First Arizona Savings, Scottsdale, Arizona; Progress Bank of Florida, Tampa, Florida; First National Bank of Barnesville, Barnesville, Georgia; Gordon Bank, Gordon, Georgia; and First Bank of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida.

In the case of Arizona Savings, the FDIC was not able to find a suitable financial institution that will take over the bank’s operations. As a result, depositors will receive checks will be sent to depositors who have insured their funds.

First Arizona had an estimated $272.2 million worth of assets and at least $198.8 million in total deposits. Prior to the closing, the bank has over $1.8 million worth of uninsured funds.

Meanwhile, Chicago-based Seaway Bank and trust Company has agreed to take over the operations of the First Suburban National Bank, which had an estimated asset of $148.7 million and total deposits worth $140 million.

According to FDIC, the bank failures will cost the agency some $52 billion over the next four years, slightly lower than the earlier forecast of $60 billion.

US-based WebEquity Solutions LLC announced on Thursday that SunCorp Bank, the 5th largest listed bank in Australia, plans to acquire the company’s web-based software for its commercial loan processing and credit analysis.

According to WebEquity, SunCorp would benefit from the platform by consolidating multiple disparate credit analysis applications and loan processing tools under one software, which in turn increases the company’s efficiency and become more uniform in its lending practices.

“SunCorp has recognized the need for a higher platform standard for their lending program, which could eliminate the use of multiple information storage from various lending disciplines of the company,” WebEquity said.

Under the comprehensive lending software, SunCorp will be able to access all records of their borrowers and also allows the company to connect with more than 10, 000 commercial, financial institutions, and small business borrowers in the quickest time possible.

To date, SunCorp has already automated a considerable portion of its entire lending process – from credit analysis to loan origination, and decision making to portfolio risk management.

“Under the new software, SunCorp was able to have unprecedented capability to track and manage all credit applications from Agriculture to Commercial Real Estates loans, in a more efficiently and shorter period of time,” WebEquity said.

The platform works by easing out the manual processes – and eliminate errors associated with data entry – to allow the company to gain more visibility on a more comprehensive database.

To date, WebEquity provides the same software design to more than 650 financial institutions and at least 10, 000 lending professionals worldwide, making it one of the most on-demand financial software manufacturer in the market today.

A new report by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday told that United States lenders, led by JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America, have started talks with the attorney general of respective states over “malpractice” issues on foreclosure paperwork and legal procedures.

According to the report, representatives and lawyers of JP Morgan and Bank of America have already met, in different occasions, with Florida State General to discuss possible solution to accusations that the financial firms have cut corners in their paperwork when they foreclosed millions of homes in the US.

Both firms were not available for comment as of press time.

The investigations against the malpractice in the mortgage industry have commenced last week, with all 50 states focusing on the allegations that the companies, over the last few years, have submitted false statements to allow them to evict delinquent borrowers out of their homes.

Earlier, the New York chief justice has imposed new guidelines on foreclosure procedures done by the financial firms, requiring all lawyers handling the cases to verify first all the paperwork before resuming with the foreclosure orders.

The new guidelines also allow state judges to review all the documents, and if necessary, stop the foreclosures if the paperwork is invalid.

Earlier, a top housing official at the Obama administration said that the banks can resume with the foreclosures. However, the official warned that the companies may face federal charges and fines if they were found “guilty” of violating the law.