Massachusetts

While working with new fintechs carries some risk, it can also provide community banks with an affordable way to upgrade products and technology.

Call it mutual respect. Bankers from mutually owned British building societies and similarly structured U.S. thrifts recently gathered in New England to address common challenges and share ideas about staying relevant at a time of rapid change in financial services. Here are the takeaways from their meetings.

Fill a room with bankers and you'll hear a wide range of views on technology's role in their business.

Auto lenders would be well advised to keep up their guard as states — particularly blue ones — take steps of their own to crack down on what they see as abusive practices.

Green Apple Bank & Trust, which recently filed an application with regulators, plans to open in the western part of the state by the end of this year.

The Boston-area bank will add branches near New Hampshire after buying the cooperative bank.

While the merger was legally completed nealry a year ago, it was not until recently that the process of integrating the two institutions' technology was wrapped up.

The state’s banking regulator said that the online consumer lender made over 46,000 small loans to Bay State consumers without a license. The company surrendered its license to the state regulator as part of a 2011 consent order.

John Damaso will retire this July after spending 25 years with the credit union. He will be succeeded by SVP Nelson Tavares.

Only North Dakota has its own state-owned bank, but policymakers in other states say more public banks are necessary to fully meet society's needs. Among those who proponents say would benefit the most: small-business owners and legal marijuana suppliers and distributors.

The Worcester, Mass.-based credit union was selected to participate in the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston's Equity Builder program, and can receive up to $110,000 this year to help homeowners with down payments, closing costs and more.

The company's deal for Coastway Bancorp in Rhode Island makes sense since both institutions are former credit unions.

The mutual has agreed to buy Cape Ann Insurance, which specializes in personal insurance products.

This year marks the third consecutive year the league has awarded $125,000 to member credit unions.

The merger in Massachusetts is the latest in the consolidation of the credit union movement, as another tiny credit union is acquired by a much larger counterpart.

The $356 million-asset Bridgewater Credit Union plans to merge into $596 million Merrimack Valley Credit Union in the summer of 2018, pending regulatory approval.

Louise Mills Federal Credit Union will now operate its lone branch as "Louise Mills, a division of Webster First FCU."

Kathleen Henry and Steven Antonakes have been named to the bank's management committee.

The Boston mutual, which lost its innovation team when it spun off Numerated last year, has hired a State Street executive to oversee a plan to encourage all employees to be more creative.

With the state only months away from allowing the sale of pot for recreational use, its top cannabis regulator is urging policymakers to consider creating a public bank to provide services to growers and dispensaries that might otherwise have nowhere else to bank.