Special Program Root Tag

Citi adds two more female directors, including Ellen Costello; social media allows small banks to connect with people who aren't coming into the branch, says one of our community bankers of the year (and if you're on Twitter, you probably already know who), and Mary Wisniewski asks, how can fintech hope to disrupt banking when it's no different than banking? (Hard not to notice the sexism and the dearth of women when you are one.)

Citigroup has appointed Ellen Costello, former BMO Financial chief executive, and Intel President Renee James to its board.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Wednesday that it has hired Mary McLeod to become the agency's new general counsel starting next year.

Investors Bancorp in Short Hills, N.J., has hired a former Capital One Financial executive to head its enterprise risk management team.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., has created a formal division for lending to municipal governments and has promoted executive Debbie McLeod to lead the venture.

Following its promise to make mobile point of sale products a key revenue-driver for the company, Verifone Payment Systems released a new mobile card reader for independent and micro merchants.

One of the more perplexing elements of the slow, long-awaited march to EMV-chip cards in the U.S. is the lack of awareness that still pervades among merchants and consumers alike.

Global Payments and Heartland Payment Systems have a chance to create an international powerhouse focused on small to medium sized business, restaurant and education payments, if they can meld their technology post-acquisition and retain Heartland's management.

The $467 million-asset mutual thrift appointed Patricia Stetler to the role this week.

The $5.6 billion-asset multibank holding company hired Fontaine to replace Ed Hooks, who has been its counsel since 1992 and who will retire at the end of the year.

Despite the incessant fanfare around mobile wallets, biometrics and the Internet of Things, the slow-and-steady move to EMV security is in the spotlight of Verifone's revenue prospects in the coming year.

Wirecard Group and Alipay are collaborating to provide European retailers with barcode technology enabling Chinese tourists to make point of sale payments using the Alipay mobile wallet app.

American Express has joined LendingTree’s credit card marketplace.

Versatile, high-tech digital gift card sales are going strong for this year’s holiday season, but in the latest sign that plastic cards many never die, eBay has partnered with gift card giant InComm to sell traditional gift cards online that will take up to 10 days to arrive by mail.

Dealing with late and missed payments from creditors is a chronic complaint of small businesses, who are often stretched too thin to chase down money owed to them. But a U.K.-based startup aims to attack that problem with YayPay, an automated invoicing platform with a bill-collections feature that launched this week in the U.S.

U.S. transactions processor Global Payments Inc. is in talks to buy smaller rival Heartland Payment Systems Inc., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

JPMorgan Chase's Eileen Serra is giving up her CEO title (for a very interesting reason); CIT Group's Ellen Alemany is getting to work sooner than expected with a big housecleaning; and Meredith Whitney resurfaces with an insurance company. Plus, inclusion confusion, the "Person of the Year" (it's a woman for the first time in 29 years), and Saudi Arabia.

Even though Walmart has been a key member and driving force behind the Merchant Customer Exchange joint venture to establish a new mobile wallet, the retailer's addition of Walmart Pay to its mobile app is consistent with strategy, and will lead to a wave of individual bank and retailer initiatives.

Boku had to stay mum last week about its involvement in powering Apple Inc.'s carrier billing option in Russia, but there is no such gag order this week regarding the company's partnership with Microsoft.

One of the leaders of the retailer-driven Merchant Customer Exchange mobile payment system, Walmart is stepping out with its own alternative to Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay.