Bank technology

How Eastern Bank pulled off something few community banks have: launching a digital lending product that the 197-year-old mutual dreamed up in its innovation lab.

The Independent Community Bankers of America said that it agrees with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s support for “responsible innovation” in fintech but that it worries marketplace lenders have a “regulatory advantage.”

The idea behind The DAO is to act as a decentralized investment fund that leverages the wisdom of crowds. But sometimes the crowd doesn't necessarily offer the wisest counsel.

Suresh Ramamurthi has launched a new payment system for healthcare providers and APIs that let other companies create their own faster-payment products — all at a tiny bank in rural Kansas.

The drumbeat of news about hackers stealing millions of dollars by gaming the Swift interbank messaging system should have been a wake-up call for banking executives, but it's unclear how many of them answered it. Is it too late for them to shore up their defenses?

The Federal Reserve detected more than 50 breaches of its computer systems from 2011 to 2015, Reuters reported, adding to signs that the central bank may be vulnerable to hackers or spies.

By allowing commercial clients to authenticate via an eye scan, Wells Fargo is making a burdensome task simple. Secil Watson, head of wholesale Internet solutions, is pushing the bank to make digital banking easier for commercial clients.

The idea that restricted access to loans for poor-credit borrowers is unequivocally a bad thing is based on industry talking points that don't stand up to real-world scrutiny.

Instant Apps could give banks a better option for transitioning customers from a quick and easy account opening to a more robust banking experience.

With initiatives like its adoption of Touch ID last year, Chase is setting the bar for the industry on digital innovation.

In this quick Q&A, Gavin Michael, the 51-year-old head of digital for JPMorgan Chase's retail unit, talks about his favorite apps, his love of pen and paper and the technology he is most excited about.

The 2016 Digital Bankers of the Year, selected by the tech journalists at American Banker, are helping their organizations redefine the customer experience as people rely more on their phones and less on face-to-face interactions to transact. Through their efforts, customers are getting into their accounts faster, sending money more easily and enjoying better digital experiences overall.

A recent spate of breaches on Asian banks that allowed hackers access to the Swift network have resulted in finger pointing, and some calls for creating a new, more secure network. But the issues faced by Swift would likely be the same with any replacement network.

Well before the mobile payments explosion, incumbents were already focused on how to respond to nonbanks "piggybacking" on banks' payments infrastructure. As the consultant behind a 1994 banking industry report on the threat put it, "there is no time for delay."

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.

Consumers, especially millennials, increasingly prefer to do everything on their mobile devices, including signing up for services. But as banks start to open accounts for people whom their employees have never met, there are plenty of questions about whether they can tell real customers and crooks apart.

Investigators are examining possible computer breaches at as many as 12 banks linked to Swift's global payments network that have irregularities similar to those in the theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank.

In the ongoing melee between the two major players, strong authentication has been put on the backburner in favor of the respective economies of implementing chip card technology.

In the battle among banks to make use of blockchain, Banco Santander's U.K. unit said it's first among British lenders to use the technology for global payments.

Smartphones are an important window into understanding underbanked customers, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in a report released Wednesday in conjunction with a meeting of the agency's advisory committee on economic inclusion.