Bank technology

Banks that find true innovation hard to accomplish can take heart — it’s no picnic for startups either. To hear both sides share their challenges is an argument for collaboration.

Tim Welsh has spent his first two months on the job thinking about how to make U.S. Bank as central to consumers’ lives as Amazon, develop new personal financial management services, and expand into new cities.

Yes, the credit bureau goofed badly on data security, and it proved to be worse at crisis management. But other companies have been just as sloppy with cyber defenses, and business and government leaders should have tackled these problems long before now.

Arthur Levitt says seemingly daily scandals highlight the lack of oversight and corporate governance shortcomings of financial technology firms, but two marketplace lending executives responded that more mature companies have just as many problems.

The identity theft threat created by the Equifax hack and the growth of online lending have given software makers a platform to pitch products that rely on selfies, scans of driver’s licenses and other nontraditional ID methods.

Separate apps for banking and PFM are too much for most customers to handle, so the Canadian bank is adding automated advice and savings to mobile banking — and it’s relying on artificial intelligence and predictive analytics to make it all work.

Out-of-control email chains, long meetings, haphazard approaches — that was project "management" at Exchange Bank in California. It took five years, but those things have changed.

Readers chime in on debates about ILCs, the CFPB’s arbitration rule, the financial services ambitions of tech firms and more.

Umpqua Bank is testing a system that would make text-chat, video and voice banking more personable by staffing them with branch workers during their downtime.

The Cincinnati bank says its investment unit is taking an equity stake in NRT Sightline to provide a wide range of banking and payments services to casino operators.

It's not just big banks. Even U.S. community banks may be subject to the General Data Protection Regulation given the boundlessness of digital commerce.

China’s crackdown on cryptocurrency exchanges raises questions about the future of digital asset innovation, a movement that some bankers view as a threat and others embrace as a boon to payments, P-to-P lending and other activities.

Normally tight-lipped about security moves, bankers tell how they are re-examining their systems for Equifax-like flaws and providing new cards, fresh accounts and reassuring advice for anxious customers.

The payments processor Square has big plans in banking — but even after filing an application to charter an industrial loan company, it still doesn’t see itself as a competitor to most financial institutions.

Beneficial Bank in Philadelphia intends to be an early adopter of Apple’s Face ID.

Wells Fargo, PNC and others are finding that the web seminar is an effective way to promote themselves through advice and useful content aimed at consumers and business clients.

The Upstart Network's CEO, Dave Girouard, explains how the online lender worked with a normally aggressive federal regulator to balance the needs for innovation and consumer protection.

The once confrontational relationship between fintech and traditional banking has clearly changed as both sides are finding ways to work together.

Vikram Pandit, who ran Citigroup during the financial crisis, said developments in technology could see some 30% of banking jobs disappearing in the next five years.

Facial recognition and an updated Apple Watch could spur change in banks’ mobile apps for Apple customers.