BankThink

They may look different, but for opening accounts, serving small businesses and satisfying consumers' need for cash, branches remain essential.

During lockdown, adoption of services like mobile order-and-pay, biometric authentication, contactless fare collection and digital currency accelerated. Consumers have more options than ever — and their behaviors will guide further innovation.

Financial firms can minimize the damage by understanding where key threats lie, educating employees and customers about phishing scams, and breaking down silos between compliance, fraud and security teams.

Randal Quarles, the Federal Reserve's vice chair for supervision, says the central bank was wise not to require banks to build capital cushions in the lead-up to the pandemic. But that decision rested on a misleading a narrative and could wind up threatening the economic recovery.

Any bank that engages in auto, mortgage or other retail lending should develop a comprehensive program to identify potential risks of noncompliance with consumer protection rules and take corrective actions before the Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau comes calling.

Just as small and midsize businesses had to adapt to survive the coronavirus emergency, lenders need to adopt new underwriting practices and technologies that modernize how they evaluate borrowers' creditworthiness.

The average American’s financial picture is bleaker than government data suggests, according to the former comptroller of the currency. Research from his new organization, the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, has found that unemployment is higher and household wages are lower than reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In "Antitrust," former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Amy Klobuchar offers little nuance in weighing the costs and benefits of concentrated economic power.

Math-based machine learning tools hold substantial promise in advancing the fairness of consumer lending and developing benchmarks for the entire industry.

Banks need to innovate to compete with upstart fintechs, but fragmented and inflexible core systems are slowing digital transformation. Here’s how banks — with help from their regulators — can thrive amid the disruption.