Bank technology

More than a decade after spearheading the direct banking model of offering high-yield savings accounts exclusively online at ING Direct, Arkadi Kuhlmann is trying to reboot international banking for the smartphone.

U.S. Bancorp on Monday named its annual "Dynamic Dozen" list, a select group of young employees chosen to provide the $387 billion-asset company with guidance on digital banking.

By linking mobile payments with money transfers, Western Union created a new use for Apple's mobile wallet. But it must still rigidly conform to the basic requirements of an Apple Pay transaction — without a bank account, there is no payment.

Small business alternative lender Biz2Credit has added Fortis Payments to its roster of payment partners.

Puppy Bowl fans, keep your TVs turned to Animal Planet on Sunday. FirstBank's new ad campaign was made with you in mind — sort of.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week.

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 social media platforms and the blogosphere.

Federal Reserve officials suggested that anonymous payments and the technologies powering digital currencies could inform broader plans for reshaping the U.S. payment system.

Green Dot reported a net loss in the fourth quarter as it spent money to diversify beyond its flagship prepaid card business.

Purveyors of certain cloud services, such as cloud-based lending, face continual rejection from bankers worried about security. But some say a data storage specialist could be every bit as secure as a financial institution — if not more so.

A new study says Americans are getting hooked on mobile banking.

Marketplace lenders are seizing on current investor enthusiasm after the December public listing of LendingClub. SoFi and Funding Circle have set new origination targets, and new capital markets deals may help replace bank credit lines for Blue Elephant Capital Management and perhaps others.

SimpleFi is working with a New Jersey bank to pitch its payday loan alternative and financial educational services to employers across the country come February 1. It represents part of the trend of disruptors rethinking payroll data.

Citigroup has agreed to change its policies that prevented low-income consumers from opening checking and savings accounts.

Western Union is adopting a vastly different use of Apple Pay than what banks and merchants have so far considered.

Critics of online alternative lenders argue that their underwriting models are unproven and that a financial crisis could bring the whole industry crashing down. But while Lending Club and other startups may be relatively new to the scene, they're no greenhorns.

Fake identity fraud is growing, due to the plentiful array of consumer account and card data available in the wake of massive data breaches. It's a crime banks find almost impossible to detect and deter.

Peer-to-peer and institution-to-small business loan marketplace Funding Circle launched a new fractional loan marketplace today, the San Francisco company announced.

Prosper Marketplace, the online lending platform that arranges funding for unsecured consumer loans, announced its first takeover Tuesday, paying $21 million to buy American HealthCare Lending. The target offers loans for elective medical procedures.

The Fed appears to have looked at Bitcoin as a means for real-time payments in the banking system but shelved the concept for now.