Resources

The U.S. Post Office should get into banking. With that assertion, agency Inspector General David Williams created quite a stir a few months ago. Behind the proposal are dueling postal officials with very different policy positions and agendas. Plus a murmur of momentum on Capitol Hill. American Banker reporter Kevin Wack explains.

Mobile banking has expanded beyond the market for youthful early adopters and is rapidly becoming a mainstream product. American Banker reporters discuss who else is logging on and the hurdles the industry faces to keep the momentum going.

For mortgage lenders, "subprime" can sound like a dirty word, especially after the financial crisis. But now some mortgage companies, in search of new business, are starting to loosen their credit standards again. As some banks and nonbank lenders, including Wells Fargo and Carrington Mortgage, offer mortgages to less creditworthy borrowers, are the subprime mortgage floodgates about to open wide?

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the Federal Reserve acted appropriately in setting restrictions on debit card swipe fees, marking a critical victory for banks and a major setback for retailers. American Banker editors discuss what the ruling is likely to mean for the debit card industry and whether it represents the end of the high-stake battle.

The fraud-fighting EMV chips that are a card-industry standard in Europe finally appear to be on the verge of becoming one in the U.S. Editors discuss why now and what the diffusion of the technology will mean for bankers and merchants.