Bank technology

First National Bank of South Africa says the offering for its direct-deposit customers should give them one more disincentive to leave, beyond the usual hassles of switching financial institutions.

The Detroit automaker's lending arm is teaming up with a peer-to-peer car-sharing app — a move that could foreshadow changes in how the industry underwrites auto loans.

There are plenty of opportunities for banks to collaborate with the tech startups that are driving rapid change in the financial industry. But first they need to find innovative ways to address systemic challenges like compliance as well as cultural differences.

Community banks that try to serve too broad an array of customers will wind up losing out to larger competitors. They would do better to focus on one or two customer segments and familiarize themselves with those groups' specific habits and needs.

At this year's EMERGE Forum in Austin, Texas, the Financial Solutions Lab — a $30 million, five-year initiative managed by the Center for Financial Services innovation with founding partner JPMorgan Chase — revealed the winners of a recent competition for apps that tackle consumers' cash flow challenges. The nine winning organizations, chosen from 298 applicants and 14 finalists, received a combined $3 million, along with mentorship, networking, peer learning and national partnership opportunities. The following is a look at their solutions to the problems of the working poor and others ill-served by traditional financial products.

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 from our social media platforms.

Bank regulators should improve their collection of data on information security incidents at financial institutions and facilitate better information-gathering about industrywide cyber threats, the U.S. Government Accountability Office said Thursday.

ING recently launched its InsideBusiness platform, which aims to allow corporate clients to do things like manage their global liquidity from anywhere in the world. The product, which will be expanded slowly, is part of the company's push to compete for commercial clients in the U.S.

Banks used to have almost no involvement with the U.S. patent system, but recently some large institutions, like Bank of America and JPMorgan, have begun locking down intellectual-property rights. The effort appears to be aimed at fending off patent trolls, and it raises fresh questions about which activities are legitimate for financial institutions.

Multiple banks are reporting fraudulent activity on cards used at hotels owned by real estate magnate, reality TV star, and now controversial presidential candidate Donald Trump.

PayPal has agreed to acquire Xoom for $890 million, as the consumer payments company looks to expand into the international remittances business.

PayPal, Amazon, Square and American Express have all built new businesses by extending credit to merchants that already rely on their payment networks. Their client relationships give them certain advantages over banks, marketplace lenders and others.

Always-connected workers report feelings of guilt as well as privacy concerns around the use of mobile devices for personal matters at work, and vice versa. Bank CIOs are facing this challenge with software tools and mobile device management policies.

Green Dot MoneyPak cards were phased out late last year because of fraud concerns, but they are finding a new life on Netflix. The hit show "Orange Is the New Black" features the prepaid reload cards in a storyline in the women's prison that houses the main characters.

Blythe Masters, the former JPMorgan Chase executive, has joined the advisory board of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a Bitcoin trade association created to represent the young industry's interests in Washington.

The executive in charge of protecting JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s computer network from hackers has been reassigned, after a year on the job that included controversy over his handling of a massive data breach and the departure of several top security team members.

WASHINGTON — Federal regulators on Tuesday unveiled a much-anticipated tool meant to help institutions assess their own cybersecurity systems.

The agency's Semiannual Risk Perspective pinpointed compliance and operational risk as potential problems for big banks while it outlined a different set of challenges for midsize and community banks.

As manufacturers increasingly equip automobiles with Internet access, bankers and technologists are envisioning a day when cars could be used to make payments, inform risk underwriting and deliver targeted offers.

Nationwide Bank in Columbus, Ohio has created an online car loan service that allows consumers to secure financing and insurance and shop for a car purchase.