PayThink

So, it is with much gratitude that I can, instead, point you to our "The Year Ahead" special report, in which a number of brave souls offer their insights into what credit unions can expect to see as 2015 unfolds.

As with any marriage, banks that forge alliances with tech companies need to make sure they really know their partners. They may also want to consider a prenup.

In recent years, companies have used Big Data to improve marketing, sales and operations.

Financial institutions need to have good digital offerings, but they also need to find ways to stand out from the crowd. That's why branches will remain a crucial home base.

Mortgage denials in 2013 were comparable to those recorded a decade ago, analyses of HMDA data show, challenging perceptions about how easy lending really was during the era of "pulse" loans and "fog-a-mirror finance."

Retail businesses require expansion, in terms of increasing physical locations or getting more customers into the store. But there are several other ways of boosting profits that involve payments management and analysis, though these are often overlooked by most owners.

The financial crisis scarred many Americans. Now that they have given themselves permission to spend again, they will do so responsibly.

The ideal digital bank would respect customers' privacy and relate to them as human beings while offering an array of simple, easy-to-use mobile and online apps.

Google fired the latest salvo in the interchange wars in late December by filing an antitrust suit against MasterCard and Visa in Texas federal court.

Technology companies are wooing customers away from traditional financial institutions. If banks want to address this threat, they need to rethink their business models and stop chasing profits at all costs.