Burak Arik, founder and CEO of Maxitech, said the fintech's banking customers want to be able to offer virtual assistants for a wide array of purposes including personal financial and letting people pay their rent with a voice command.

Azlo, Bento, Bank Novo and other neobanks argue they are better at helping small businesses, giving them extra attention, technology and advice.

Traditional financial institutions still have an advantage over challenger banks when it comes to building relationships with small merchants, despite scandals that have befallen megabanks.

The New York unit of Popular has contracted with Biz2Credit to automate commercial loan approvals and handle the underwriting for applications under $100,000.

The agency says lenders lacked the risk appetite, while bankers point to concerns over turnaround times and strict loan terms.

The $380-billion asset company will soon join the parade of big banks and tech companies that are migrating online to meet the demands of business owners.

Banks should work to shield some customers who may otherwise be flagged or blocked by AI-powered safeguards, and consider using alternative data to expand services to the underbanked.

Bigger banks appear to be losing C&I share to small and midsize lenders. That's raising questions about whether community banks — known more for commercial real estate lending — have enough expertise to underwrite deals that larger banks avoid.

Regtech — the intersection of regulatory compliance and financial innovation — is still taking shape in the U.S with some pushing for "tech sprints" to speed the development of new tools, while some see new threats and opportunities looming in the space. Following is a look at hot-button topics at American Banker's RegTech summit.

Banks need dedicated teams to shore up digital compliance efforts, officials at SourceMedia’s RegTech 2018 conference said.

The San Antonio bank will refer customers seeking small-business loans to StreetShares, a financial startup that is similarly focused on serving veterans of the U.S. military.

The regtech firm Arachnys, which recently raised $10 million from QED Investors and others, draws from a collection of 23,000 data sources to help banks protect themselves from money launderers and other criminals.

Executives at Wells Fargo, BBVA Compass, ATB and Banco Popular share some of the pain points they've encountered as they've implemented artificial intelligence, and how they overcame them.

Visa is pursuing the online criminals to prevent future fraud. Visa also works with law enforcement agencies to quantify potential losses and, where possible, assist in the threat mitigation.

The potential for voice payments is massive and drawing significant attention from developers. But limited use suggests it's not ready for prime time.

It seems that every year, at least since Apple Pay launched in 2014, it’s the “year of the mobile wallet.” And each year, like clockwork, the banks end up disappointed in the lack of traction in mobile wallet usage and adoption.

Entry of Alipay and WeChat Pay into the U.S. market will spur banks to innovate, according to Sarabjit "Ruby" Walia, executive vice president and head of digital retail banking and wealth management at HSBC

Wells Fargo has numerous mobile banking and card account apps in the works, including Control Tower and Greenhouse, and those will inform its Pay with Wells Fargo project, according to Beverly Anderson, the bank's executive vice president of cards and retail services.

The subprime auto lender Prestige Financial Services used machine learning to make more effective lending decisions than its former model.