Fintech

A former call center worker says he lost his job last year after reporting that employees were given incentives to market credit cards to ineligible borrowers.

There’s no clear winner yet in the “war on cash,” so investment is flowing into technology that’s designed to accommodate a wide set of payment options that can still take cash along for the ride.

Banco Bradesco said it will use the acquired bank to expand its investment offerings in the United States.

Bank of America Merchant Services is working with subscription management platform Recurly to help merchants generate revenue and drive subscriber engagement and customer loyalty.

Mastercard hopes to tap into existing partnerships and clients from multiple business lines to combine services in a single menu for small to mid-sized businesses, a market where fintechs have made great strides over the past few years, enough to draw extra attention from established companies.

Profitability improved significantly last year for banks with less than $2 billion of assets, but not because of anything they did. Some troubling trends lurk beneath those big gains too.

The bank is hoping the venture will encourage more companies to use Quorum, the Ethereum-based blockchain it built five years ago.

Wells Fargo & Co. said it expects to refund certain fees paid on debit-card accounts as it reviews disclosures that may have confused customers.

Facebook’s pursuit of a crypto-based payment system would seem to be filled with potholes and red flags. The social network’s stealth project isn’t much of a secret, and another Facebook virtual currency has already failed years earlier. But Facebook also has a lot in its corner — enough to threaten the e-commerce and payment processing establishment, should its crypto project take off.

The National Credit Union Administration and the Small Business Administration have established a program to boost SBA lending by credit unions, which was very light last year. It is sure to irk bankers, who have raised competitive concerns.