EAST PALO ALTO, Calif.–Three years of planning came to fruition with the opening of Community Trust Credit Union here.
The goal is to provide financial services to a low-income market that is largely without access to low-cost financial services, according to backers of the credit union.
For the last three years, CTCU has been working with Northern California Urban Development (NCUD) to open a branch in East Palo Alto.
Even as it also spends big on AI, Bank of America is sending a clear signal that human workers will still play an important role in tomorrow's workforce.
Sixteen percent of consumers took out a buy now/pay later loan in 2025, according to the Federal Reserve, as more low-income consumers turn to the short-term installment loans for everyday expenses such as groceries. That's creating a blind spot for banks that underwrite consumer credit.
Payment firms that also lend money said the Iran war, Canada trade war and other tariffs were already pressuring small businesses. Here's what some lenders are trying to do about it.
Scott Powell, who was hired by CEO Charlie Scharf to help fix the bank's regulatory problems, is moving into the chief risk officer role.
Federal banking agencies spent the year putting agentic AI outside their guidance. The attorneys general want Congress to move the opposite way.
In conversations about small-business banking, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity recommended Mercury far more often than licensed financial institutions.
