Todd H. Baker

A new stablecoin bill threatens to balloon federal borrowing and increase the deficit, while a change to bank capital rules would vest the Treasury with power that should rest with the Federal Reserve.

A three-stage plan combining data analysis, public disclosure and market-based regulatory intervention would better align financial services with what consumers really need.

Elected officials are better off deciding who’s most deserving of federally backed coronavirus relief funds for small businesses.

Many borrowers will suffer unless the program, the central bank's latest response to the coronavirus pandemic, includes consumer loans issued by fintechs.

LendingClub and Varo Money are making inroads into the traditional financial system, but other fintechs still face long odds.

LendingClub and Varo Money are making inroads into the traditional financial system, but other fintechs still face long odds.

The fintech community was both surprised and energized by recent news that Visa has agreed to acquire Plaid, one of the nation’s largest fintech platforms for financial data analytics.

The acquisition will vastly expand Visa's platform, giving it nearly Amazon-like influence.

A more practical approach for U.S. regulators on whether to bring fintechs into the banking fold might be "better the devil you know than the devil you don’t."

A federal judge blocked state regulators from suing the agency over its new charter, but it’s still unclear whether fintechs would even apply.

A federal judge blocked state regulators from suing the agency over its new charter, but it’s still unclear whether fintechs would even apply.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has gotten the ball rolling for financial technology firms trying to operate a national platform, but the FDIC and Federal Reserve should act to remove other policy roadblocks.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has gotten the ball rolling for financial technology firms trying to operate a national platform, but the FDIC and Federal Reserve should act to remove other policy roadblocks.

Despite being barred from the securities industry by the SEC, LendingClub’s founder has found plenty of people to back his latest venture — and that’s a problem.

Fintechs can get what they need from a traditional bank charter with the FDIC, as long as the agency is willing to play ball and step up its approach to innovation.

Fintechs can get what they need from a traditional bank charter with the FDIC, as long as the agency is willing to play ball and step up its approach to innovation.

Evidence that the credit characteristics of online installment borrowers at the time of repayment are consistently worse than at the time of borrowing should be a sobering thought for lenders that have not been fully tested in a credit downturn.

Fintech still has a ways to go to change the financial world, but it already offers solutions to income insecurity that can be truly transformational right now.

Many bank overdraft-related practices favor profits over customer financial health, but those practices are driven in part by lost revenue from an ill-advised Dodd-Frank Act provision.

The deal marks a milestone in SoFi’s evolution into a private bank for millennials, but it won’t solve the challenges of the alternative lender’s funding model.