Alternative lending

Working with Sungage Financial will help NBT Bancorp diversify its consumer loan portfolio and learn from a fintech startup with a speedy credit approval process.

Readers this week highlighted the need for banks to upgrade payments systems, debated a small bank’s decision to ditch its legacy core vendor, lamented populist initiatives of the GSEs, and more.

The promise of fintech is that it might offer underbanked consumers access to financial products. But some are worried that relying on algorithms to make credit decisions could open up problems of its own.

Dan O'Malley, who until very recently ran the fintech incubator at Eastern Bank (and before that was at Capital One), now has a startup called Numerated Growth Technologies and software that he says can process loans in five minutes.

Bill would replace much of Dodd-Frank but is unlikely to become law; online retailer is expected to expand Amazon Lending program to small businesses in the U.S., U.K. and Japan.

More business lending is shifting from banks to "murky" trusts as the government imposes more restrictions to reduce risky loans; 11 states advance suit as Justice Department retreats.

Fed Gov. Jerome Powell says central bank will provide more information to banks about how it conducts annual tests; bank CTO discusses its 2018 blockchain test.

Online lenders are evading New York regulations by claiming their loans are “made” by federally chartered or out-of-state partner banks, Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo told lawmakers Monday.

Archaic regulatory frameworks are curbing progress in fintech. We must modernize our rules so they address an internet- or mobile-based economy.

Banks are losing wealthier underbanked customers to alternative lenders — an undercurrent that is halting progress in expanding credit access for all.