Bank technology

Banks have been waiting on Justice Department guidelines on how to make their websites compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, but many are being advised to take action now or face lawsuits from disabled customers.

The president-elect's policies on taxes, offshoring, surveillance and other issues will affect bank technology officers and their vendors in a variety of ways. The positives may slightly outweigh the negatives.

A Trump presidency might very well accelerate recent efforts to adapt banking regulation to the rise of fintech.

The credit agencies played a role in the Great Recession, but marketplace lenders still need ratings oversight to make their businesses viable.

To jawbone Mexico into paying for the wall, President-elect Trump has threatened to suspend remittances. Such a move would disrupt one of the busiest corridors of money in the world.

Bill.com has gained traction in recent years with a few large banks that market its electronic bill payment service for businesses, but reaching a wider audience has been tough because small businesses are a tough nut for banks to crack.

Kenny and Sean Salas, founders of Camino Financial in Los Angeles, have a pretty good idea of what it's like to be a Hispanic small-business owner who can't catch the attention of traditional banks. They have established an online marketplace, a credit-scoring model and relationships with online lenders to help fill the void.

Threats to the industry's control over payments were apparent before PayPal became popular. However, risks are even more visible and real today.

Tesco Bank, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, has refunded 2.5 million pounds (about $3 million) to 9,000 customers who were affected by a large-scale online banking cybertheft last weekend.

The only tactic for survival is brutal honesty. So let's accept the very real risk of disappearing and do the heavy lifting required to persevere.