Bank technology

The smallness of in-store branches used to be a liability, but with the industry's changing landscape, strategically placed "alternative branches" make more sense today.

Some regulatory agencies appear ripe for criticism or curbs to their authority in the incoming Trump administration, but the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is in position to have its authority expanded.

WASHINGTON -- A federal court in California has accepted a controversial request from the IRS to obtain the records of possibly millions of users of the bitcoin exchange Coinbase.

Several non-U.S. core systems providers are trying to make American banks their clients, but they still face challenges penetrating an entrenched marketplace.

Consumers' providing bank credentials to third-party services is akin to handing over their house keys. To mitigate screen-scraping risks, banks and fintech companies must first address issues related to security, transparency and control.

The bank consortium R3 CEV has released its Corda platform as open source to encourage innovation and interoperability in the industry's development of blockchain technology.

Goldman Sachs, one of the biggest technology spenders in the industry, admired for being tech savvy as well as extremely private, has publicly acknowledged its use of Infosys's Finacle software to run Marcus, the online lending subsidiary it launched two months ago.

For its commitment to improving the long-term health of depositors, and a nimble, failure-is-not-a-dirty-word approach to innovation, USAA has earned an honor American Banker normally bestows on a single individual.

Whether banks view them as rivals or partners, fintech firms' rising influence is prompting banks to make a host of welcome changes, including heavy recruitment of young, tech-savvy professionals, according to heads of several major U.S. banks.

Financial industry groups have rolled out a plan for keeping bank customers' data safe if a mega-disaster, like a massive attack or a natural disaster, strikes.

Bank of New York Mellon has created a dedicated innovation group for launching new technologies in its treasury services unit.

Debby Hopkins, chief innovation officer at Citigroup and chief executive of Citi Ventures, the bank's venture capital investment arm, is set to retire at the end of the year.

Citigroup mobile-app users can now track the status of deliveries of replacement credit cards.

The Internal Revenue Service's petition for information on Coinbase customers is an overreach that should concern Americans regardless of whether they use bitcoin.

JPMorgan Chase seeks to reshape its business through technology, but there is a natural gap between the megabank and Silicon Valley startups. Larry Feinsmith's job is to bring the two together.

While the IRS has targeted banks with broad "John Doe" summonses, it does not typically ask financial institutions to turn over information on all of their account holders, as the agency wants Coinbase, a bitcoin exchange, to do.

The election results will only intensify factors making competition with bank lenders more difficult, including the effect of interest rates as well as the regulatory environment.

Most blockchain vendors have been competing against each other for banks' business, but if the technology's true value lies in its interconnectedness, vendors will have to keep embracing open-source software and collaborate even more.

An Israeli startup in the emerging B2B2C space that allows consumers to make payments through major messaging apps has completed a $6 million round of funding backed by Banco Santander, Mastercard and other investors.

Belmont Savings in Massachusetts isn't trying to fire or replace its employees who work the phones pursuing sales leads, but it has made some technological investments to get more out of them.