Bank technology

The Federal Reserve System released a detailed vision Monday for improving the speed of the U.S. payment system.

Like General Motors extending credit to car dealers, Google will use Lending Club to finance resellers, service providers, and consultants in its supply chain while putting to work a portion of the tech giant's cash war chest.

Forget the machines. Even forget the software. Diebold's business plan for the future — as touted in a video the company screened at 50 movie houses around the world — centers on its collaboration with banks and others on innovation.

Online marketplace lender OnDeck Capital has launched a new platform to better enable institutional investors to buy small business loans OnDeck originates.

Online marketplace lending platforms are filling real needs. But few banks participate in this booming niche, reflecting the industry's risk aversion and regulatory concerns as well as resistance to change.

Regulators have come to view macroprudential regulations as the guiding light of financial policy. But whether that strategy is working is open to debate.

2014 ended roughly for some of the biggest payment companies, and 2015 will bring even more challenges from rapidly changing technology and nimble startups.

Bill Gates, the world's richest man, and his wife Melinda said that conditions for the world's poorest people will improve more dramatically in the coming 15 years than at any other time in history.

M&T Bank in Buffalo, N.Y., has agreed to sell a trade processing business to Broadridge Financial Solutions in Lake Success, N.Y.

Fifth Third Bancorp and U.S. Bancorp say they will delicately approach expenses in 2015 — or at least until rates rise. They are investing where they must, but pinching where they can, and trying to manage expectations on loan growth.

TD Bank is deploying "smart" automated teller machines in four Canadian branches.

This year, electronic trading will finally come to the bond market and more banks will adopt technologies that harness social media to flag potentially fraudulent customers.

Pioneer Federal Credit Union in Mountain Home, Idaho, has deployed video teller technology to its ATMs.

The digital-only offshoot of Customers Bank combines edgier technology — like letting consumers snap photos of their driver's license to open accounts — with a new business model that counts on interchange revenue rather than fees.

Two defendants in an alleged identity theft ring that targeted banks in New York City and Westchester County have pleaded guilty.

BBVA and USAA are among a group of participants in a $75 million investment in the Bitcoin wallet provider Coinbase, an unusual move given the cool posture most financial institutions have taken toward virtual currency.

Let this be the year that the financial industry stops using the phrase "big data" and remembers that the goal of technology is to make people's lives simpler.

Many community banks will soon have to replace outdated technology — expenses that will hit them in an ongoing environment of compressed net interest margins, increasing compliance costs and higher capital requirements.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is proposing legislation to strengthen data security laws to protect consumers from having their personal data stolen.

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