BankThink

Lots of banks offer P-to-P and bill pay, but Fiserv's research suggests institutions can make improvements in making consumers aware.

The new administration and Republican-controlled Congress have a historic opportunity in 2017 to bring banking into the 21st century.

Threats to the industry's control over payments were apparent before PayPal became popular. However, risks are even more visible and real today.

The only tactic for survival is brutal honesty. So let's accept the very real risk of disappearing and do the heavy lifting required to persevere.

Breaking News This Morning ...Trump triumphs: Global financial markets dropped sharply in the initial reaction to Donald Trump's unexpected victory in the U.S. presidential race. Stocks in Asia and Europe dropped sharply, bond prices fell and the Mexican peso plunged, but gold prices jumped higher. The Republicans held onto their control of both houses of Congress. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

Small merchants need to adopt omnichannel, but it can be difficult in a low resource environment. Staying flexible to add technology fast is key.

It is premature to say whether criticism of cross-selling and calls to break up the big banks will lead to action, but there is one area where a spinoff could actually be in the banks' interest.

Making customer experience consistently good is a priority, but it's not enough. Great experiences in the future will be tailored to individual needs and preferences.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...British bank hacked: Tesco Bank, a unit of U.K. grocery chain Tesco PLC, said Monday that hackers stole money from customer accounts over the weekend, earning the bank "the rare and dubious distinction of losing customer money in a cyber-attack," in the words of the Wall Street Journal. CEO Benny Higgins said about 20,000 accounts had money stolen from them. "Although the numbers are small, the incident is the stuff of nightmares for bank CEOs who are spending billions of dollars to protect their intricate computer systems from cyber-attacks," the Journal said. The paper noted banks have been hacked before, but it is rare for customer funds to be stolen. The Financial Times notes the attack "exposes vulnerabilities," while other articles ponder the implications for the bank and depositors and shareholders. The bank "temporarily stopped online transactions from all current accounts," the FT reported. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, American Banker

The rules can be tricky, but social data can add lots of detail that can help prove identity and reduce fraud.