PayThink

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., BB&T’s primary regulator, has a history of going easy on the bank. The combined entity would be better supervised by the central bank, which already oversees SunTrust.

While many public policy initiatives focus on the 1.7 billion “unbanked,” we rarely hear about the nearly 1 billion people who do have a bank account and a smartphone but have no credit card nor cross-border-enabled debit, writes Eric Rosenthal, managing director of the Americas at Rapyd.

Lawmakers should step in to address the proper status of loans made by banks that have partnered with fintechs, rather than letting the courts decide.

The financial services industry has plenty of tasks, such as card issuance, that can benefit from the automation that artificial intelligence brings, writes Jie Wu, a director at GoodData.

The future of payment is already drastically affecting the retail industry. While retailers will need to adapt their digital strategy yet again, this shift in consumer trends presents yet another opportunity for success, Steve Davidson, vice president of warranty products for Fortegra.

As major vendors consolidate, financial institutions should be looking to adopt emerging technologies, rather than relying solely on legacy firms to provide services.

Regulators should clarify rules around deposit-advance products so that banks can serve consumers seeking short-term loans, like those affected by the recent partial closing of the government.

There is a fundamental irony in the “blockchain, not crypto” position espoused by traditional financiers and business professionals. They encourage those entering the space to widen their view of these new protocols beyond their speculative monetary values in favor of real-world use cases of the technology, writes Sky Guo, CEO of Crypherium.

Some have suggested the BB&T-SunTrust deal could spur similar ones, but prolonged M&A growth is hardly a sure thing in this political environment.

As they continue to protest credit union mergers, banks are set to reap the benefits from a deal that will create an institution one-third the size of the entire CU industry.