Mary Wisniewski

Big banks with innovation labs see them as a way to improve the customer experience and to test new ideas in an industry facing disruption. Skeptics see potential for waste.

As bank customers’ tastes turn away from branches and toward mobile devices, banks are trying to replace the customer standby, the 800-number, with more modern communication media like SMS text and WhatsApp.

Digital-only Atom Bank in the U.K. recently won a banking license — a feat U.S. fintech entrepreneurs have either failed to accomplish or not bothered trying, instead partnering with established institutions.

As manufacturers increasingly equip automobiles with Internet access, bankers and technologists are envisioning a day when cars could be used to make payments, inform risk underwriting and deliver targeted offers.

Applying early for the web extension increases the odds of getting a preferred address in a business where "First National" is as common as "John Smith." Eventually, bankers hope .bank gains widespread recognition as a mark of trustworthiness.

A growing number of startups and banks are trying to design digital experiences that train users to manage their money more responsibly, starting with small amounts in mundane situations.

Credit unions aren’t the only financial services firms reaching out to millennials. A new social media campaign by Fifth Third offers recent college graduates free one-on-one career counseling. The initiative is part of a trend of banks allocating marketing dollars to unusual perks and charitable giving to differentiate their brands.

A new Fifth Third social media campaign offers recent college graduates free one-on-one career counseling. The initiative is part of a trend of banks allocating marketing dollars to unusual perks and charitable giving to differentiate their brands.

A call to improve customers' digital-banking experience was the top theme during SourceMedia's Digital Banking Summit. Banks should imitate the Apples and Googles of the world, not each other, experts said.

Citi was one of the first banks to open its application programming interfaces to outside developers, leading a movement that's picking up momentum. For this and other efforts, Bank Technology News has chosen Heather Cox as its top 2015 Digital Banker of the Year.

WSFS Bank has teamed up with ZenBanx, a fintech startup founded by a pioneer of direct banking, Arkadi Kuhlmann. WSFS will be the first in the U.S. to power a mobile account that lets users park money in up to five currencies and send remittances. The partnership is the latest example of a traditional bank trying to inject innovation into its culture.

A specialized Wells Fargo branch in Des Moines and the nonprofit Digital Finance Institute are part of a small but growing movement to improve access to financial services for emigres who have escaped war or persecution.

Namu is trying to solve a problem facing all banks that vie for millennials' attention: how to make the mobile banking experience more appealing. Its app refreshes users' memories of transactions with images illustrating what they bought.

A handful of banks are upgrading their apps with Siri-like "virtual assistants" that understand spoken questions at a time when most institutions don't even let digital customers do typed keyword searches of their transaction data.

As banks compete for tech talent against the Ubers and Amazons of the world, a new startup called untapt offers algorithmic matching of workers and bank tech jobs.

Wells Fargo and other banks are testing the use of mobile devices to authenticate consumers in the drive-through lane. The pilot, designed to expedite service and improve security, serves as the latest example of a growing trend: preordering banking services via digital devices.

After the early exuberance surrounding Apple Watch, banks and vendors are ramping up testing of bank apps on other wearable devices and everyday objects, preparing for a day in which most everything is connected to the Internet.

Citigroup and other banks are increasingly looking to startups to help them compete in a world in which Google, Apple and other tech firms are rapidly becoming potential threats.

Many banks will need to invest in making their websites render nicely on smartphones after Google started to favor "mobile-friendly" pages in determining what content comes up first on its search pages.

Many credit unions will need to invest in making their websites render nicely on smartphones after Google started to favor "mobile-friendly" pages in determining what content comes up first on its search pages.