Opinions

Following the disclosure by a name brand retailer that their point-of-sale (POS) system had been breached, shoppers outside one of the retailer’s brick and mortar locations unanimously told a television reporter that cash was the safest way to pay in-person.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

Bank employees will inevitably make mistakes. Lenders need to invest in people and technology to reduce their impact.

Total holiday sales are expected to reach $863 billion in 2014, up from $822 billion last year. That is a staggering amount of money, and the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas make or break a sales year for large and small businesses alike.

Recent technological advancements are forcing banks to change the way they do business while staying true to the customer relationships that determine their success.

Bankers can prepare for the eventual dominance of mobile technology by investing in interactive videos and moving away from monolithic applications.

Recent speeches by Benjamin Lawsky and other regulators suggest that government officials are gearing up to issue new cybersecurity rules. Banks' relationships with third-party vendors are one likely area of focus.

The CFPB's proposed requirements threaten to trap next-generation digital wallets and cryptocurrency innovations in a consumer protection regime narrowly tailored to the unique characteristics of reloadable prepaid cards.

Online shopping and payments has become a popular holiday option, making it vital that online merchants to ensure their sites can handle the spike in web traffic and transaction volume for "Black Friday" and the rest of the holiday shopping season.

Regulators are urging senior bank management to spearhead the effort to improve cyber risk management. Executives would be well advised to act before fines and other enforcement actions are handed down.