Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

PayPal is sponsoring a hackathon series where mobile app developers have just 24 hours to build an app that will win them a trip to PayPal headquarters to compete for $100,000 at the Battle Hack World Finals.

Many community bankers are looking to expand into new types of activity to bolster their results in a time of sluggish loan demand. However, venturing into everything from wealth management to credit cards to cybersecurity poses formidable risks as well as rewards. American Banker staffers discuss the trend.

As mobile banking and commerce have taken off, so too have the number of bugs in wireless systems. Here's a look at how some industry leaders are exterminating them and what it means for banks.

From California to New York, state regulators have been clamping down on payments industry innovators, forcing some out of business and discouraging others from even entering the market. That raises the question of whether antiquated statutes and ways of thinking have become an impediment to one of the banking industry's most promising growth businesses.

Bank of America this month disclosed plans to eliminate its crisis-era purchase by the end of this year, keeping Merrill Lynch's name and branding but dissolving the formal subsidiary. The merger should help Chief Executive Brian Moynihan's multi-year cost-cutting effort and will help eliminate some complexity at B of A, as regulators continue to scrutinize the size and scale of large financial companies.

Government authorities say that 70 million Americans are either underbanked and unbanked. Yet many of these people are well served by the financial system. American Banker staffers discuss whether the issue of the financially underserved is overblown and if so what may be behind the trend.

JPMorgan Chase's summer of regulator troubles has commanded the spotlight lately. However, the problems it faces have serious implications for many other banks. American Banker editors discuss what's at stake.

Following a series of fines against some of the largest banks for anti-money laundering lapses, expect regulators to target banks in the next tier down, says Ellen Zimiles of Navigant Consulting. A former assistant U.S. attorney, Zimiles also explains why the government has been reluctant to press criminal charges against financial institutions, and why it's hard to build cases against individual bankers.

A New Jersey credit union has agreed to accept accounts transferred from a trading exchange that handles Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. The move, apparently aimed at attracting business from investors and financial institutions that trade in the alternative forms of tender, could provide them with a much needed level of legitimacy. Staff reporters discuss.

Mortgage lenders are facing billions of dollars in new demands that they make whole the government and government-sponsored entities for housing-backed investments that have gone sour. American Banker staffers discuss why now, what additional banks are likely to get sucked in and whether an end to the demands is in sight.