Opinions

Fewer transactions are taking places in branches but banks’ brick-and-mortar locations are more important than ever.

Millennials, who alreadymake up a third of banked consumers in America, are used to transacting life in clicks and swipes. Institutions must embrace their needs now or risk extinction.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is keeping lenders in the dark about how it will ensure borrower data is secure and private under the expanded Home Mortgage Disclosure Act reporting requirements.

Rather than replace bankers with technologists, bankers must return to their original role in the community: help entrepreneurs succeed through connecting capital with good ideas.

As we approach the midpoint of 2016, two of the most pressing matters in the payments industry have become more acute—the push for greater transparency and accountability in merchant acquiring and processing.

Initial coin offerings are the latest fad for many emerging cryptocurrency companies and projects. From the recently completed Lisk, Waves and Mycelium coin offerings to the historic crowd sale by the DAO – which was subsequently hacked for about $60 million – to Bitland, Project Decorum, Elastic Project and a good number more sales, the trend is clear.

Heather Cox says Citi cherry-picks the best of fintech apps for its own services; FemTech leaders ponder what Brexit means for fintech; and SEC chair Mary Jo White takes on board diversity. Plus, Synovus' Liz Dukes Wolverton and Synchrony's Carol Juel.

The business case for real-time payments is not the opportunity to charge high fees. Rather, the payoff – which will take time – will come in retaining customers, lowering operational costs, and delivering timely financial insights to smartphone-toting customers.

Attendees at the recent White House fintech summit shined a spotlight on shared innovation challenges. To overcome them and help the U.S. make progress in financial services, we need to embrace these three regulatory reforms.

The approach of many payment and financial services companies to security is still stuck in the 20th century. But luckily, firms of all sizes can choose to travel in time to 2016.