Digital Banking 2020

The days of meeting with mentors and pitching investors in person are at least temporarily over, but fintech incubators, accelerators and boot camps are finding creative ways to replicate these valuable experiences online.

Some financial institutions are using emotion AI, which picks up subtle signals over text, audio and video, to help their customer service agents do their jobs better.

Jane Gladstone, new president of Promontory Interfinancial Network, says the recession will accelerate the shakeout among the nonbank disruptors and that small banks have an opportunity to forge new bonds with the survivors.

Axcess Financial is using stronger authentication, studying up on bad actors and planning to use a federal service that automates verification of Social Security numbers.

Banks are using emotion AI, which picks up subtle signals over text, audio and video, to help their customer service agents do their jobs better.

Thanks to their close relationship with the card networks, banks stand to benefit most from deals like Mastercard’s agreement to buy Finicity and Visa’s pending purchase of Plaid. The prospects for fintechs and consumers are dicier.

Citizens Bank and Citigroup are among the financial institutions plugging away at a service that has gained little traction among customers.

Upstart, which specializes in the use of alternative data and AI in credit decisions, will make car loans directly and sell its technology to banks and other lenders.

The company’s U.S. chief executive says the primary goal behind the app it rolled out Wednesday is to help customers improve their financial health and avoid overdrafts.

Challengers like Joust, Lili and NorthOne that offer banking services to freelancers and small-business owners are getting record levels of new customers as the traditional workforce thins.