Bank technology

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.

FIS in Jacksonville, Fla., has partnered with the Venture Center to create an incubation lab to boost innovation in financial technology.

Moven will soon prompt its customers for usernames and passwords only for riskier transactions. By removing the login for most functions, the company aims to drive engagement in an app meant to be used on the go.

Ramamurthi has transformed a 123-year-old institution with one branch serving a dusty Kansas town into a seedbed for disruptive financial technology — not to mention a wildly profitable generator of fee income.

Wells Fargo in San Francisco said that its chief information officer will retire at the end of March.

The success of a new blockchain-technology initiative will hinge on the ability of many influential players to work together: IBM, Digital Asset Holdings, R3, other tech companies, banks, Swift, the London Stock Exchange and the Linux Foundation.

Digital Asset Holdings is reportedly seeking a $35 million funding round that would put the blockchain technology startup’s valuation at $100 million.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's payday loan proposal threatens many money services businesses on the front lines of stopping money-laundering and terrorist financing.

Ally Financial, seeking new sources of customers, will finance used cars sold through Beepi, an 18- month-old website that lets people buy vehicles with a few clicks and no test drive.

The latest blockchain technology initiative has IBM, Digital Asset Holdings, R3 and other tech companies working with banks, Swift, the London Stock Exchange and the Linux foundation to jointly create open-source software meant to be used to quickly bring new blockchain software to market.

Green Dot is giving its chief financial officer job to Mark Shifke, who has been the firm's acting CFO for the last seven months.

House Republicans attacked the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday, arguing the agency is not able to safely secure the anonymous bulk data it collects on consumers' financial activities.

Under the direction of Richard Holbrook, Eastern Bank has prepared itself for the next 200 years by embracing a culture innovation, adding scale through acquisitions and advocating for the less fortunate in its community. It's an unusual formula, but it has worked and that's why he is one of American Banker's three Community Bankers of the Year for 2015.

The $933-million asset institution said in a press release Tuesday that the technology, provided by Louisville-based R.C. Giltner Services, will enable consumer and small-business customers to complete the loan application process in minutes.

Developing banking solutions for lower-income consumers means getting to the heart of the financial volatility they face trying to make ends meet.

Fearless forecasts from BankThink's stable of industry veterans, experts and critics.

Global Payments and Heartland Payment Systems have a chance to create an international powerhouse focused on small to medium sized business, restaurant and education payments, if they can meld their technology post-acquisition and retain Heartland's management.

Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., has agreed to buy the disbursements business of Higher One Holdings in New Haven, Conn.

A startup backed by philanthropist Pierre Omidyar has emerged from stealth mode with technology that promises to provide consistent value and a degree of privacy to electronic money.

The United Kingdom has already seen the emergence of mobile-first institutions that have won regulatory approval for a banking charter. It is only a matter of time before they invade the U.S. market.