Banking

Banks and credit unions “push back” against an FCC proposal to limit calls; Miami gets the next assistant the bank says is not intended to replace humans.

The information you need to start your day, from PaymentsSource and around the Web. Today: Revolut adds Apple Pay; Fitbit Pay will support the MTA's contactless test; Flipboard and Checkers suffer breaches; U.S., U.K. form fintech alliance.

Smaller banks are often not taking the extra step beyond traditional functions such as online bill pay, writes Alberto Hernandez, COO for the U.S. region at Valid.

Branches are closing at the fastest pace in years, and keeping them relevant to customers is a problem banks are being forced to solve in ever more creative ways.

Many banks have already scaled back home lending or even left the business. With profit margins shrinking, inventories of homes at crisis levels and competition from nonbanks intensifying, that’s unlikely to change.

Wider net interest margins compared to a year earlier helped make up for a slight decline in loan balances, as nearly two-thirds of banks reported higher profits in the first quarter.

The scandal-plagued bank announced Wednesday that it is adding a board member with deep experience in accounting. It is also considering a switch to flat pricing in indirect auto lending, a change long favored by consumer advocates.

Speaking at a conference on Wednesday, CFO Howell McCullough mostly ruled out a merger of equals as a growth strategy for the $108 billion-asset Huntington.

A burgeoning trade war, the U.K.’s planned exit from the European Union and escalating tension between the U.S. and Iran have weighed on market sentiment in recent weeks, Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat said Wednesday.

A strong economy and the chance to court Hispanic customers and businesses have banks interested in the region once more.

A year after it debuted, Bank of America's virtual assistant now counts some 150,000 users per week. It's one of the few large financial institutions pushing such technology.

Jelena McWilliams said federal bank regulators could begin "within a week or so" to discuss a draft proposal for reforming the Community Reinvestment Act.

A Burke & Herbert veteran will serve as CEO until January, when the bank will introduce an outsider as its leader.

Representatives of minority- and women-owned small banks from around the country met to discuss how to expand business opportunities.

Many kiosk manufacturers focus on cost and manufacturing efficiencies, placing little to no emphasis on experience architecture — where the physical meets the digital in design and engagement, writes Scott Reese, chief technology officer at Harbor Retail.

The data aggregator plans to help U.S. fintechs expand into the U.K. and vice versa.

More than 66% of the banks reported a jump in net income during the first quarter but new risks are emerging in interest rates and underwriting, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday.

Having already recently absorbed Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai FCU, Credit Union of Southern California is now set to pick up tiny FedONE FCU.

The bank dropped out of the bidding for the card over profitability fears; returning to the market could boost Barclays' investment bank.