PayThink

When it comes to online retail markets, China is in a class by itself. The country is already home to the world’s largest e-commerce market, and there’s room for more growth.

While rising rates may temporarily improve net interest margin and profits, they will not increase bank stock prices for at least three reasons.

Regulators have given the merger between CIT Group and OneWest Bank the green light — so long as CIT comes up with a revised Community Reinvestment Act plan. This condition is good news for the low-income communities impacted by the merger and sets a strong precedent for regulators' review of future bank deals.

While tokenization does represent progress, it is important to consider whether tokenization is, in fact, enough to secure online payments. There are some vulnerabilities, and as cyber thieves grow more sophisticated, companies will have to continue to innovate better security solutions, as well as ensure the ones that are on the market are being used as effectively as possible.

There is no reason a bank should be able to issue a loan and enjoy one set of rules while a marketplace lender, essentially issuing the same loan, must deal with a morass of conflicting state standards.

In the years ahead, look for projects that leverage the Bitcoin network to greatly expand mainstream banking infrastructure's reach into new markets — particularly those in volatile economies.

There's a classic approach behind many of the retail cyberattacks that make the news: Backoff malware, which “sniffs” the traffic that flows on a network to identify and steal credit card data passed between point of sale (POS) terminals.

Regulators rely for critical information on consulting firms that are paid by the very same banks that they are engaged to evaluate. This conflict of interest has repeatedly proven toxic.

In order for the financial services industry to achieve its full potential in the digital age, Silicon Valley must work together with banks and lawmakers to build technology that can modernize banking infrastructure while addressing regulatory and cybersecurity challenges.

Payment system transformation has become a pressing need for banks today. The rate at which this is happening is largely controlled by the conflict between rapid technological shifts and the barriers to product acceptance.