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Fintech companies with narrow-purpose banking charters pose a safety-and-soundness risk and should be denied access to the payment system and other perks unless they meet the same strict regulatory criteria as traditional financial institutions, trade groups for banks and credit unions told the Federal Reserve.

The fintech, which arranges point-of-sale loans in partnership with merchants, was fined $2.5 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and ordered to refund up to $9 million to consumers who received loans they never applied for.

It will be Christopher McComish’s second tour as a bank CEO. He led Scottrade bank for two years, between 2015 and 2017.

Citigroup plans to exit Venezuela by selling its remaining business there, ending more than a century of operating in the South American country.

Banks should let consumers download their account data and transfer it to other financial providers, according to a new presidential order. Some experts argue aggregators are already making this happen, but others say the directive implies more consumer control.

Stopera retired in 2019 after 39 years at Capital Communications Federal Credit Union in Albany, New York. In 2003, the credit union founded the CAP COM Cares Foundation, which donated about $4 million and over 30,000 volunteer hours to families in the region.

Novus, a startup whose app helps consumers make environmentally conscious purchases, is using application programming interfaces provided by the two companies to expand quickly. The effort shows how open banking can extend the reach of small companies and create new business lines for larger ones.

The bank is piloting fingerprint-reading cards that work with existing payment terminals. Its goals are to strengthen security for large transactions and to inform future deployments in other markets.

ICBA Bancard will help link community banks to instant payments through a partnership with real-time services hub provider Finzly.

Though the Paycheck Protection Program is winding down, the Small Business Administration has prolonged several other pandemic relief programs. Community banks can help local businesses sort through their options.