Retail & Commercial

At a time when customers are rapidly switching to digital banking, scores of branches are closing. But many institutions — mindful that brick-and-mortar locations remain a critical sales channel — are also experimenting with physical layouts that are focused on technology and generally smaller than traditional branches. In some cases, they have even done away with employees. Here is a look at some of the designs that banks have built as they seek to fuse the physical with the digital.

B of A's Cathy Bessant and Michelle Moore have a few suggestions for women who want to advance and RBC's Janice Fukakusa sets a new pay benchmark for female executives. Plus, Bank of the West's Nandita Bakhshi and Citi's Yolande Piazza.

NBT Bancorp has spent the last few years introducing digital banking features intended to reach a broad audience.

None of the initial steps banks can take to modernize business lending are cutting-edge innovation ideas, but they can still improve the borrowing experience, giving businesses fewer reasons to look elsewhere.

In the shift to online and mobile shopping, one group often left out is the 65 million Americans with poor or no credit. But as more retail categories like furniture move online, a growing number of e-commerce merchants is adding instant finance options for the subprime crowd.

As part of the broad regulatory review, the Treasury secretary should consider a blue-ribbon panel to look at modernizing policies on everything from consumer disclosures to wealth accumulation.

Community banks, which could be the hardest hit if economic tensions between the U.S. and Mexico escalate into a tariff battle, are urging policymakers to refrain from rash action, and big banks are already trimming exposures.

Credit unions aren't giving back to their communities because it makes them look good, they're doing it becuase it's the right thing to do.

The fired chief executive of a New York-based trade group representing asset-backed lenders has sued the group, claiming he was wrongfully dismissed after raising concerns about conflicts of interest and a lack of auditor independence.

Live Oak Bank, known for streamlining the lending process, has turned its attention to fixing its patchwork approach to cybersecurity.