Fintech

Fairwinds Credit Union in Orlando is set to buy Friends Bank, the third time this year a Florida-based bank has agreed to sell to a credit union.

The Illinois company will pay $46 million for a bank that is a fraction of its size.

As blockchain and other emerging innovation pour into the B2B market, Bottomline Technologies believes bank collaborations with smooth deployment and user experience can lure anxious businesses away from checks.

The national awareness initiative has broadened its rollout to the Carolinas after launching in Minnesota earlier this year.

Consumers are expressing an ever-increasing interest in making digital Person-to-Person payments to friends, families and even businesses for bills, shared expenses or temporary loans. Digital P2P payments are quickly beginning to displace other payment forms such as cash and checks due to their convenience and growing ubiquity.

While student, auto and credit card balances are at or near record levels, housing debt is shrinking, credit quality is weakening a bit and lending standards, at least in some sectors, are tightening.

Furniture retailers typically split payment for big-ticket items with a deposit and the balance due upon delivery, but the process is usually fraught with paperwork, security and efficiency gaps.

In the tug-of-war over merchants refusing either cash or cards embroiling local governments in New Jersey, New York City and Philadelphia, the Iowa State Fair is taking the middle ground. Beginning next year, all fair vendors will be required to accept cash, cards and contactless payments through First Data’s Clover devices.

A field of membership expansion will allow the credit union to serve as many as 400,000 additional consumers.

Central National Bank rebranded as Stride Bank to move away from a name with overused words.