Equifax

The credit bureau enraged many with its response to a massive data breach this fall, but closing the company down would ultimately harm consumers.

Recent data breach events in September 2017 in the U.S., involving the stock value drop of Sonic as well as Equifax, are evidence of the negative impact of data breaches on the economic value of businesses. Clearly, they have become incidents of board-level importance, writes Justhy Deva Prasad, chief data partner at Claritysquare.

Debit and credit both have their downsides, but both of those downsides disappear if you stay up to date with the latest fraud prevention and chargeback management practices, writes Suresh Dakshina, president of Chargeback Gurus.

An ex-regulator’s stern warning about the risks of sharing consumer information with fintechs has prompted debate over common security standards for banks and nonbanks, better data tracking and new liability insurance products.

The advent of blockchain technology may prove to be disruptive to traditional credit reporting agencies by decentralizing data aggregation and allowing consumers to take ownership of their data through a personalized wallet they could share with prospective lenders, writes Alexander Koles, CEO, founder and managing director of Evolve Capital Partners.

The Trump administration is “sounding a friendlier tone” toward bankers following the Obama chill; credit bureau takes steps to limit the financial damage.

Company’s first earnings report since the data breach also discloses lots of suits and investigations; Senate bill also calls for one-year delay in corporate tax rate cut to 20%.

Readers chime in on the idea of a state-backed bank to serve the cannabis industry, data-sharing between banks and fintechs, whether community banks can just focus on tech laggards, and more.

Barros has no answer for Senate committee on encryption; a bitcoin network split won’t happen … for now.

The heads of some of the largest U.S. banks are calling for a new security-focused mindset among executives, better forms of ID and collective action in the aftermath of the Equifax breach.