Bank technology

Refusing to let innovators experiment in a permissive environment keeps regulators in the dark, and ultimately, prevents progress in financial services.

Aaron Vermut has resigned as chief executive of Prosper Marketplace, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Vermut stepped down last week but will remain a director at the San Francisco-based online lender, according to the report, which cites unnamed sources.

KeyCorp integrated First Niagara just a couple of months after the deal closed. CIO Amy Brady says coordination between business leaders and the tech team paved the way.

Facebook has disabled so-called ethnic affinity filters from housing, credit and employment advertising following mounting criticism that the practice allowed marketers to discriminate against minorities in violation of fair housing and civil rights laws.

Banks like SunTrust are looking to tech as a way to gain an edge in commercial lending, an area of banking where innovation has long been lacking.

Affirm, which has raised $525 million since launching in 2012, would like to expand its services and begin taking deposits.

Mobile phones are only going to become a bigger part of how banks interact with their customers, so several institutions are looking to enhance that experience. They are focusing on better ways of opening accounts, verifying identities, interacting with customers and offering new services and features. Here are some of the improvements announced this year.

While remittances may pose higher risks than services like bill pay, they are absolutely necessary in an age of unprecedented migration. It's high time state and federal regulators update the rules to help inspire banks to re-risk.

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.

The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against NetSpend on Thursday, alleging that the prepaid card issuer deceived consumers in its advertising.

Citigroup has made some of its application program interfaces available for third-party developers.

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.