Robotic process automation is said to have a high return on investment, but adopting it on a large scale has proven challenging, especially at community banks.

In venturing into what's normally a province of large banks, nbkc in Kansas City, Mo., discovered innovative tax-management and other products that it could offer to its own customers or sell to other banks.

A machine learning-driven analysis can aid with risk, financial performance and fraud prevention, according to Anant Kale, founder and CEO of AppZen.

Banks and payment companies are already comfortable using artificial intelligence to guard against fraud. The tech could soon be just as welcome in creating payment products and matching them to potential customers.

The accounts — which eschew paper checks and overdraft protection — appeal beyond the low-income customers they were intended for; lenders are embracing artificial intelligence systems to analyze more data to determine creditworthiness.

Bank technologists see the potential for AI in lending, money laundering detection, fraud and other areas. Regulators and bank executives insist on “explainability.”

A Colorado businessman's request for a preliminary injunction to stop the bank from using the name “Erica” has been denied. The overall case could still go to trial, but skeptical comments by the judge suggest BofA will likely prevail.

As banks begin to use artificial intelligence in their businesses, they’ll need to consider the potential for bias as well as the impact new technologies will have on workers.

The year saw anxiety over how banks would respond to record consumer debt, disruptive glitches at TD Bank and SunTrust, ongoing scandal at Wells Fargo, and much, much more.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.