Opinion News from American Banker

Allegations of regulators pressuring banks to drop clients and customers because of political views or ties to legal-but-disfavored industries have sparked outrage among conservatives. But requiring banks to serve absolutely everyone would change the nature of banking in ways that aren't conservative.

The industry should rally behind the Financial Data Exchange, which has stepped up to help develop standards and governance protocols for open banking in the United States.

The chairman of the Federal Reserve presided over the worst inflation in 40 years, generating public outrage that paved the way for Donald Trump's victory in last month's election.

While it's true that the National Credit Union Administration needs the authority to regulate third-party vendors, credit unions themselves have considerable power to force vendors to observe best practices.

There is a major opportunity out there, especially for community banks, to displace predatory lenders and earn a healthy return at the same time. It's just a question of making the leap.

Under the Biden administration, a trio of regulatory agencies have teamed up to limit consumers' access to credit. The incoming administration should force them to stand down.

Artificial intelligence systems built to assess creditworthiness are trained on data that implicitly accepts past discriminatory lending decisions as legitimate signals about borrowers today.

President-elect Trump's embrace of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance is a political gambit that has already paid off. But greenlighting crypto's intermingling with traditional finance would create an asset bubble that would be especially painful to pop.

The demand for embedded finance is not going away, but the initial rollout of banking as a service relied far too much on middleware providers without expertise in compliance and oversight. BaaS 2.0 must feature a more bank-centric approach.

The technology has the potential to democratize access to knowledge about financial services, but like any tool, it must be used carefully and responsibly.

As the banking industry becomes increasingly technology-dependent, wise bank leaders recognize that a bank is not solely defined by its buildings, technology or pricing. It is human connections that truly set a bank apart.

The U.S. is well behind other countries in implementing open banking and delivering its benefits to customers. Brazil's success in that area can serve as a useful model.

"Too big to fail" banking giants like to masquerade as community banks when it suits their purposes, but they will never be able to replace real, local bankers with deep ties to their customers.

In a string of speeches last week, the top federal banking regulators outlined goals and framed their thinking about artificial intelligence in financial services, but the biggest questions around liability and widespread adoption remain unanswered.

The National Credit Union Administration lacks the authority to regulate third-party vendors that supply vital services to the industry. This creates a major risk to credit union customers and the broader U.S. economy.

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe, and victims will always require support from their banks. A plan for delivering that support needs to be in place before disaster strikes.

A punitive tax on payments sent overseas to the families of immigrants would have a cascading set of consequences — all of them bad.

Existing efforts to reform the Federal Home Loan Bank System may look dead on arrival in a Trump administration, but the proposed Department of Government Efficiency may not be able to resist such low-hanging fruit.

Banks solved the issue of consumer data sharing years ago. Why is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau stepping in now, with a rule that could make sharing data less safe and secure?

The U.S. is alone among G7 nations in not allowing nonbanks direct access to vital central bank payments rails. It's past time for regulations to catch up with clear consumer preferences.