PayThink

The Mandarin Oriental hotel chain recently became the latest big business to suffer a data breach, sounding a call to the hospitality business to shore up security posture.

Branch closures can prompt online blowback as community members worry about employee layoffs and stranded customers. A bank's best move is to get in front of the issue and respond directly to locals' concerns.

When financial firms emphasize the need to put customers first, they offer employees a simple way to navigate daily dilemmas while short-circuiting self-interest and tribal behavior.

Technology is rapidly changing payments, turning it into something that more closely resembles a layered ecosystem like an electrical grid than a traditional financial service.

A new book by the American Enterprise Institute's Peter Wallison reveals how a government push to lower credit standards brought about the housing crisis — and why a new effort to expand homeownership could inadvertently set the stage for a fresh disaster.

The smaller banks in the FDIC's deposit insurance fund are subsidizing the activities of the largest banks. A two-tiered approach would go a long way toward addressing moral hazard and the too big to fail problem.

Apple gets it. The way to make things appealing is to make them simple, convenient and valuable for consumers.

Two activist groups want regulators to investigate whether OneWest Bank used philanthropic contributions to win the support of community organizations. But this could set a precedent that would discourage banks from making much-needed donations.

WASHINGTON — With all three member of the NCUA Board talking about reinterpreting statutes related to everything from field of membership rules to access to secondary capital, credit union executives were feeling just a little less under the gun at this year's CUNA Governmental Affairs Conference.

One of the most successful startup banks in a generation is turning over its keys to a California bank. Institutional ownership and the prospect of slower growth may have prompted Square 1 to make the deal.