Bank technology

A handful of banks and fintech companies are letting bank customers connect via chat bots on platforms like Slack of Facebook messenger. Some say this is the next big thing, while others say the technology still has a ways to go.

The linchpin of the federal government's payday lending proposal is a credit-reporting system for small-dollar loans created by the private sector, but the kinds of companies that could create it haven't stepped forward.

Banks should assess a customer's full financial picture before deciding to sell a debt to a third-party collection agent.

As chief operating officers see their roles altered through industry consolidation, they are also taking the lead of implementing banks' technological and strategic overhauls.

Banco do Brasil, the largest bank by assets in South America, wants to make more of a name for itself in the United States. It expects a new online banking platform to help draw mainstream consumers, and says an expansion from South Florida into the Northeast is likely.

In June, SourceMedia Research — an affiliate of American Banker — conducted a survey of 52 chief operating officers and other operations executives on a range of topics, including COOs' top priorities and what they think will be their future role. The data suggests COOs are concerned with regulatory trends and security threats and view themselves as change agents. Many aspire to one day become a CEO. Here are some data snapshots.

The private equity firm GTCR is interested in fintech companies looking to disrupt the status quo, so long as they have proved themselves and are paired with managers who have a long track record of success.

Pokémon Go has taken the U.S. by storm, to put it mildly. For an app that was released very recently, it already has more users than Twitter and is beating Facebook on daily engagement.

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 popular German digital startup Fidor Bank has agreed to be acquired by Groupe BPCE, the second-largest French bank.

Banks need to improve their use of technology designed for small-business customers soon, or risk losing them.

Square will enable sellers to make daily bank deposits, adding another in a series of merchant-focused perks designed to diversify revenue streams and sweeten the company's appeal to businesses.

A less discussed but arguably more important application of the blockchain is to help serve the unbanked masses, including refugees.

There may be bumps along the way, but PayPal, Mastercard and Visa all share the same goal, according to Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga.

New capabilities announced Wednesday by Capital One run on Amazon.com's cloud. It's the latest sign banks are growing more comfortable using other companies' servers instead of their own closely guarded data centers — and that longstanding security concerns are fading.

Banks can borrow some of the best practices from mobile-first fintech firms in order to compete with startups for millennials.

The cybersecurity climate is already an all-hands-on-deck situation, so one more threat – even one prompted by one of America's loudest voices – may not matter.

Hedgeable sees the peer-to-peer business and personal loans as an alternative to fixed-income investments that are traditionally offered through exchange-traded funds.

"Nobody really paid attention" when the technology for algorithmic portfolio management and investment advice was developed five years ago, says Gauthier Vincent of Deloitte. But now that robo startups are all the rage, retail banks want in.

Nearly all publicly traded equities and a majority of bonds are owned not by the investors themselves but by a little-known entity called Cede & Co. This attenuation of property rights creates systemic risk, but an effort is underway to transform the system.