Banco Popular de Puerto Rico

Whatever one thinks of it as a currency, the Bitcoin payment network sets a noble example for its transparency, says Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion. Yes, transparency. While users may transact anonymously or pseudonymously, Bitcoin boasts a public, real-time, detailed ledger of all transfers between account numbers - a stark contrast to the opaque legacy payments system.

The new year will bring an end to big regulatory settlements with banks, a sharp drop-off in the number of branches across the industry, increased use of biometric technology and a breakthrough in banks' use of big data. American Banker editors discuss these and other predictions for the year ahead in banking.

The Dodd-Frank Act and other financial regulations enacted in the wake of the financial crisis have made banking a "worse place" by adding unwieldy and unnecessary restrictions on big banks, says Dick Bove. The longtime bank analyst also points a finger at regulators for failing to adequately enforce existing regulations in the lead-up to the crisis, a point he discusses at length, while defending big banks, in a new book.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will soon begin looking beyond the rollout of new mortgage regulations this month to other markets. American Banker's Rachel Witkowski, who covers the CFPB, offers insights into where the agency is headed and when.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to draft rules governing payday lending this year. But the conventional wisdom that will likely guide it is based on false perceptions about the working poor and the best way to serve them. So argues Lisa Servon, a professor at The New School.

The large U.S. banks are being shortsighted when they protest that upgrading the payments system, as the Federal Reserve wants them to do, will require short-term as well as long-term payoffs, argues consultant Dave Birch. Banks in other countries have benefitted greatly from modernization projects, he says, pointing to the examples of M-Pesa in Kenya and Faster Payments in the U.K.

Vanity "payment names" could simplify the moving of money for consumers, employers, billers and financial institutions alike, argues Dave Birch of Consult Hyperion.

JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo kicked off bank earnings season with decidedly mixed results. Both were solidly profitable, but their methods for remaining so suggest that smaller rivals may have a hard time following suit. American Banker editors discuss the results and what they say about the industry's prospects for the year ahead.

Some of the nation's largest merchants are rolling out branded cards that offer many of the banking services their tens of millions of customers crave — plus loyalty rewards. For banks, the cards may pose a new threat, as well the opportunity to partner and reach new segments of the population.

Community bank ConnectOne is selling itself to Center Bancorp of New Jersey, in a $243 million deal that the companies are calling a merger of equals. ConnectOne Chief Executive Frank Sorrentino, who will run the combined bank as Chairman and CEO, tells American Banker about the reasoning behind the deal's unusual structure and discusses his plans for the merged company's expansion in New Jersey and the New York area.