Miriam Cross

Truist, First National Bank of Omaha and Peoples Bank in Washington state are finding creative ways for loan officers, financial advisers and others to become ambassadors on platforms including Facebook and Instagram.

The digital bank for students, which recently merged with a blank-check company, can tap its new source of capital to diversify and pursue more white-label partnerships.

LendingClub, poised to be the first U.S. online lender to buy a bank, says the transaction will be completed in early February now that it has received approvals from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve.

Tier1 Financial Solutions says the acquisition will give it access to midsize financial institutions and that Alessa's product will improve onboarding for Tier1's clients.

Sigal Zarmi, who took on broader duties this fall, is modernizing the company's technological infrastructure and using reverse mentoring to combat bias in the workplace.

First Bank in New Jersey, Northeast Bank in Maine and others have warmed to the idea of using software to streamline Paycheck Protection Program lending so that employees can be more hands-on with customers.

Absa Group is drawing on global training data from the fintech Kasisto and annotators who review conversations with clients to help in fine-tuning its virtual assistant.

American Express has spent years refining a decision-making engine that can tailor products and services to cardholders' needs in real time.

GO2bank marks the latest effort by the prepaid card issuer and banking-as-a-service provider to deliver more traditional banking products directly to consumers. Its mobile-first account offers cash back, overdraft protection and a secured credit card to customers.

Challenger banks aimed at Blacks, Hispanics, immigrants and other underserved groups are offering financial education and support for charities in addition to basic banking services.

Coastal Community in Washington is an investor in and the first client of Synctera, a software company that aims to help community banks manage their fintech relationships, including regulatory obligations.

The Conference of State Bank Supervisors filed a complaint arguing that the unique bid by the San Francisco fintech is "merely a thinly veiled effort" to evade legal challenges to the federal regulator's chartering of nonbanks.

The pandemic has forced Bank of America, Chase, PCSB and other banks to find new ways to maintain connections with their customers and communities.

Fifth Third is partnering with Provide and Panacea Financial works with Sonabank in Virginia to meet the specialized needs of medical professionals who own their own practices.

The Boston community bank and a fintech called Monit have developed an app that helps small-business owners forecast their cash flow and how certain events could affect them.

To get the word out to the Indian and Asian immigrants it's targeting, OnJuno is using social media influencers that include a well-known Japanese-American chess player and running ads during streamed cricket matches.

Montecito Bank in California began streamlining originations after a natural disaster decimated its community in 2018. The move paid off when the COVID-19 crisis hit and the bank had to quickly step up efforts to help clients.

Webster Bank and Customers Bank are among the lenders that have turned to alternative data sources and automated loan reviews to assess business customers' ability to weather the coronavirus pandemic.

The challenger bank aimed at Gen Z and counts singers, sports professionals, a social media personality and fintech executives among its investors.

Like LendUp, a small-dollar lender, Ahead Financials is targeting consumers who are gainfully employed but have blemished credit histories.