Retail & Commercial

Readers opine on Square’s applying for an industrial loan company charter, the Federal Reserve’s role in faster payments, assumptions about operational security, and more.

It’s highly debatable whether the artificial intelligence engines that online lenders typically use, and that banks are just starting to deploy, are capable of making credit decisions without inadvertent prejudices.

The bank is also working with Fit Pay Inc. to allow its customers to make contactless payments with their credit or debit cards through connected devices.

Jeffrey Seabold, Banc of California’s former vice chairman, alleges that he and ex-CEO Steven Sugarman were scapegoats for inappropriate behavior by certain directors and that the company manipulated its first-quarter earnings.

BankGuam, which is looking to sell $20 million of common stock, warned investors that North Korea represents a unique risk to its stock price.

Given the scale of damage to the region’s homes and cars, bankers are guarding against an expected spike in missed payments by extending loan terms, deferring payments and making other concessions.

By design, any practice that requires a customer to simply hand over online bank credentials to a third party is a terrible idea.

Want employees to feel empowered to make decisions to help customers? Rewarding that behavior is one way to reinforce the message. Here’s how one South Dakota community bank goes about it — in a splashy, Super Bowl-sized way.

The digital bank will also help San Francisco-based Lendeavor’s expansion efforts.

The Wall Street giant on Wednesday played up its customer service skills, saying that representatives of its Marcus personal-loan unit answer calls within 10 seconds.