Bank technology

The Madrid-based bank announced Thursday that it will invest $250 million in Propel Venture Partners.

Lending Club reported record earnings in the fourth quarter thanks to soaring loan demand.

Rather than replace aging servers and add an on-site backup system, The Eastern Colorado Bank moved its IT infrastructure to the cloud. While some bankers fear outsourcing such systems, the community bank has had a hosted core for several years.

Frandsen Financial took the industry's plan to allow faster payments as a call to action. It invested in automation software, which allowed employees previously bogged down with manual tasks to focus on more meaningful duties.

Banks are coming up short in trying to keep pace with other more advanced app providers, but emulating these five steps taken by nonbanks can help drive mobile engagement.

Several big banks have promised their customers cardless ATMs this year, but customers of the $1.2 billion-asset Avidia have been able to get cash without taking out their cards since last summer.

Orrstown Bank launched several innovative Web initiatives in 2015, including a SMS two-way texting platform and a Zillow-like feature that displays housing listings on its Web presence.

Some say the U.S. payments infrastructure is a prime target for government-sponsored cybercriminals. But the aged and fragmented nature of our infrastructure could, for once, work in its favor.

The honorees, selected by the editors of PaymentsSource, are responsible for businesses and innovations as diverse as the payments industry itself.

The continued development of blockchain technologies by banks and other commercial organizations for potential non-bitcoin uses has opened an intense public discussion. On BankThink and social media sites, techies and finance pros are debating whether financial intermediaries can and even should harness an innovation that was designed for a decentralized, trustless digital currency. Here is a sample of the debate.