Retail & Commercial

How technology is enabling new types of payment transmission and what this means for banking.

Splash recently raised $44 million from investors. It plans to use the funds to aid small institutions that lack the resources to build their own loan platforms but are flush with deposits and looking for new lending opportunities.

The $124 million buyout would give Farmers nearly $800 million of additional assets and deepen its presence in northeast Ohio.

Policymakers need to stop attacking credit bureaus and take action against credit repair firms that use dubious tactics to wipe bad debt from consumers' credit reports. Such schemes both impair banks' ability to accurately underwrite loans and further hurt real victims of identity theft.

The bank's holding company, CRB Group, has acquired PeerIQ, an online lending marketplace data provider backed by the former CEOs of Morgan Stanley and Citigroup. It's said it wants more deals like this one.

No-fee digital bank accounts subsidized by the Federal Reserve would help community banks draw in new customers and pay for technology upgrades, proponents of the idea say. But it's a hard sell to executives skeptical of government involvement in retail banking.

The fintech specializes in lending to dentists, veterinarians and other solo providers looking to grow or establish their own practice.

Sunwest Bank in Irvine, California, lets business customers open new checking accounts completely online, a technology challenge some large and regional financial institutions have yet to tackle.

Southern Bancorp, a community development financial institution, will devote part of a multimillion-dollar investment from the payments giant to developing technology that helps consumers budget, buy a home and more.

In buying the $1.5 billion-asset County Bancorp, Nicolet would become the second-largest bank in Wisconsin and the state’s No. 1 dairy lender. It's the second bank acquisition deal Nicolet has announced this quarter.