Barton Protective named one of the best companies

ATLANTA-For the third year in a row Barton Protective Services has been named to Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work for in America." This year the guard company ranked 69, up 17 places from number 86 in 2001 and 97 in 2000. To earn the distinction, Barton went through a comprehensive, 31-page survey that gathered information about the company's philosophies, policies and programs. Fortune magazine also conducted a random survey of employees, covering benefits, credibility, wages, fairness and camaraderie. Barton is a contract security company that employs 12,000 people worldwide. Safe Financial completes securitization SAN RAMON, Calif.-Safe Financial LLC completed perhaps the industry's first securitization of alarm monitoring account assets Dec. 31. The $25.3 million investment grade bond, rated A by both Moody's and Standard and Poors, was collateralized by security alarm monitoring accounts. A securitization is a refinancing of already financed and pooled cash flow assets, such as home mortgages and equipment leases. Safe Financial, which has loan portfolio assets under management in excess of 200,000 subscriber accounts, is a joint venture with GE Capital Commercial Equipment Financing. Diebold unveils iris identification ATM CANTON, Ohio-Systems integrator Diebold Inc., which is also known for its ATM business, has introduced a biometric machine that uses iris, or eyeball, verification technology to identify users. The technology was developed by a Dutch company. The machine from Diebold has an internal camera that takes pictures of the user's iris and compares it with iris data stored on a chipcard and then matches it for ATM access.