Southwest Corporate Credit Union is reporting that it saw its daily check volume spike by nearly 500,000 items during a three-day tax holiday in Texas during which the state exempts taxes on back-to-school purchases at less than $100. The typical daily average number of checks processed at the two sites in Texas is approximately 996,700, said Jody Beck, senior vice president of operations. One of the days immediately following the tax holiday, Southwest Corporate processed 1.4-million checks at its Houston and Dallas sites. Southwest Corporate noted that volume during this year's tax holiday was actually less than in previous years. "It underscores the shift away from paper checks," said Beck.
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Synovus Financial demonstrated at an industry conference how it is using Microsoft's Copilot to help its staff address customers' concerns.
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The U.S. arm of Spanish banking giant Santander has hired Swati Bhatia to oversee retail banking and its digital transformation efforts. Bhatia joins at "an inflection point" for the company, which aims to be "a digital bank with branches," CEO Tim Wennes said.
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Mariya Rosberg is named Americas head of banking and financial services at Marsh McLennan's Oliver Wyman unit; startup ZayZoon raised $15 million in a new funding round; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.
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Last year, the Raleigh, N.C.-based Integrated called off a deal to sell itself to MVB Financial after bank stocks took a hit in the aftermath of the regional bank failures. Capital hopes to expand its government-guaranteed lending with the transaction.
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Once a prominent figure spurring financial institutions to engage in cryptocurrency, Bankman-Fried's downslide began with the collapse of the digital asset exchange FTX in late 2022 and hit rock bottom with his sentencing to 25 years in prison.
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But the 30-year fixed rate mortgage is still near 7%, and that remains the overhang on the housing market, Freddie Mac said.
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