Opinions

How Eastern Bank pulled off something few community banks have: launching a digital lending product that the 197-year-old mutual dreamed up in its innovation lab.

The 'decentralised apps' tied to blockchain bring increased transparency, automation and security to traditional payment systems. This can create a domino effect that leads to a reduction in operational costs, accounting expenses, and friction which can benefit the business and pass savings on to customers.

The idea behind The DAO is to act as a decentralized investment fund that leverages the wisdom of crowds. But sometimes the crowd doesn't necessarily offer the wisest counsel.

The idea that restricted access to loans for poor-credit borrowers is unequivocally a bad thing is based on industry talking points that don't stand up to real-world scrutiny.

Instant Apps could give banks a better option for transitioning customers from a quick and easy account opening to a more robust banking experience.

How can banks benefit from a spurt of mobile payments innovation that is enabling faster checkouts with the advantage of greater security for customers?

Well before the mobile payments explosion, incumbents were already focused on how to respond to nonbanks "piggybacking" on banks' payments infrastructure. As the consultant behind a 1994 banking industry report on the threat put it, "there is no time for delay."

The fight between Visa and Walmart over authenticating chip cards could have a negative outcome for everyone involved, regardless of which side wins.

In the ongoing melee between the two major players, strong authentication has been put on the backburner in favor of the respective economies of implementing chip card technology.

For a customer to switch from a tried and true payment method to a new one, the provider must be able to offer a unique payment experience which offers concrete and obvious advantages like top-level security, unique rewards and unprecedented agility. For these reasons, the Merchant Customer Exchange's retailer-led mobile payments initiative CurrentC was bound to fail.