Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Cyber-security has long been a technology and risk management challenge for banks. Recently, Washington policymakers have come to regard it as one of the most pressing issues financial institutions face.

Banks can get beyond the negative perceptions that have dogged the industry the past few years, but they need to lay the proper groundwork first. American Banker Magazine Editor in Chief Heather Landy and Reputation Institute's Anthony Johndrow analyze the results of our fourth annual survey of bank reputations.

Web giants have built empires selling customer data. Barclays' recent acknowledgment that it is also considering selling client information raises the question for the industry of whether the potential revenue gains are worth the reputational and legal risks.

Internet giant Google is rolling out a much-heralded new mobile computing device that's integrated into a pair of eyeglasses. Here's a discussion of what it's likely to mean for bankers in terms of attracting new customers, improving security and catering to yet another computing format.

California's financial regulator has baffled observers by sending a cease-and-desist "warning letter" to the Bitcoin Foundation. The letter accuses the nonprofit of acting as an unlicensed money transmitter, even though its main activities are promoting awareness of digital currencies and developing the Bitcoin protocol client software. Did the Golden State's bureaucrats blindly send out letters to any organization it could find with the word "bitcoin" in its name? This much is clear: Rapidly evolving payment technologies are confounding traditional ways of understanding money.

Charaka Kithulegoda, CIO of ING Direct Canada, explains how and why his bank integrated its online and mobile banking software with Facebook.

Ryan Singer, CEO of startup Blockchain Health, explains how blockchain, multisignature and device ID technologies could give consumers greater control over their personal information — in this case, medical data — in the second part of a three-part conversation.Part I: 'Everyone Is Less Secure Over Time'

Most consumers haven't developed a "muscle memory" for using mobile wallets, says Julie Pukas, head of U.S. bankcard and merchant services at TD Bank. It will simply take more time — and, more importantly, widespread merchant acceptance — before consumers feel comfortable paying with their phones.

The hardest part of converting a thrift is establishing a "culture of high performance" and shareholder accountability, says Andrew Samuel, CEO at Sunshine Bancorp, in Plant City, Fla. Sunshine converted to a stock-owned company in July 2014.

In the conclusion of a three-part interview, Ryan Singer, a blockchain-tech entrepreneur, explains why bankers should care about Washington's resurgent efforts to insert back doors into security systems.