Investment

While many Americans and Europeans are comfortable using biometric authentication to access their smartphones and bank accounts, the real leader in biometric adoption for payments is actually the government of India.

Some fintechs have figured out how to provide international students and immigrants with credit cards and loans. Machine learning makes the underwriting possible.

Under the hood of U.S. Bank's new mobile app; BofA, Wells Fargo sour on blockchain; are Fannie and Freddie too big?; and more from this week's most-read stories.

They haven't thrown in the towel yet, but comments by top executives at the two big banks suggested that their interest in finding financial services uses for distributed ledgers is wearing very thin.

With its expanded capacity and reliability, 5G will drive innovation in mobile, online and branch services for credit unions.

MMC Norilsk Nickel PJSC and its billionaire chief Vladimir Potanin are planning several digital platforms, including using crypto tokens for trading palladium.

There’s currently a focus on investing in technology and data to remain competitive, but financial firms also need to ensure they are helping workers adapt, argues Synchrony’s Margaret Keane.

Mainstream firms are joining the push to let cannabis firms use banks; the companies say they can help banks make lending decisions quicker.

Some lenders, especially in markets like California, are preparing in case of a technology-industry stumble that hurts business, real estate and other loan segments. Whether those fears are well founded is a matter of debate.

The watchdog’s report — requested by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. — called for civil money penalty authority and better supervision to guard consumer data.