Northern Hills Federal Credit Union in South Dakota is one of several institutions testing tools that can deliver faster loan decisions, an edge they need against digital upstarts.

Hispanic adults are underbanked compared with their white counterparts, according to the Federal Reserve. Challenger banks such as Tend and Viva First are reaching out to this population with bilingual services and low-cost money transfers.

Digital upstarts like Square, Stripe and PayPal are invading community banks' turf by appealing to local merchants with a mix of electronic payments and lending. Small banks are fighting back by leaning into digital services while maintaining their personal touch.

With today’s generation of home buyers so rooted in a digital world, how will the financial services industry need to change to meet their needs? What new consumer technology will they need to adopt to meet consumers where they are? How will those approaches differ from how things have been done historically in the industry? Join us in a discussion with Blend’s Founder, Nima Ghamsari as we chat through how banks and financial institutions need to think through these questions.

Some big tech firms “have sought to gain greater control over the flow of money in our economy,” Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra told senators. His comments came after the agency demanded information from large tech companies about their payment offerings.

The California bank sued a former executive for allegedly taking trade secrets and using them to build a rival fintech. A recent interim ruling frees Aeldra Financial to move ahead with fundraising while the case continues.

Piermont Bank in New York expects to double its $347 million of assets in a year by extending working capital to financial technology companies. MainStreet Bancshares in Virginia is taking a different approach, hoping a new banking-as-a-service offering will help investors see it as more cutting-edge.

The state has a poor track record of managing customer-facing operations. It’s difficult to see an upside in the current push for a state-run bank — especially when neobanks are already offering the same services it would provide.

After Visa's deal to acquire Plaid fell through as a result of regulatory pressure, the data aggregator found new fintech partners including Square and Dwolla to support an account-to-account transfer service.