Banking

As you plan for the coming year — and beyond — here are some challenges and opportunities worth thinking about.

As you plan for the coming year — and beyond — here are some challenges and opportunities worth thinking about.

Even in a digital era, human connections still matter. That is one big disadvantage for fintech startups and increasingly for banks as customers stop making regular branch visits. So it is instructive to hear SoFi's thinking on how to overcome this challenge. It is trying some unorthodox tactics to better understand the people behind the data and to create meaningful connections with them.

From Dimon's campaign against earnings guidance to the bottom-line implications of rising rates, here are more of our favorite stories of the year. (See part I here.)

So much of the blockchain hype has dwelt on the efficiency it could bring to the financial system, but finding ways it could make money would excite more bankers about the nascent technology.

Kenneth Mahon, the new CEO of Dime Community Bank, wants to reduce the 152-year-old institution's multifamily exposure by diversifying into other asset classes. But finding new business amid already fierce competition could be an immense challenge for Dime — and other community banks — in 2017.

The Rural Housing Service is expanding its manufactured housing loan guarantee program to include more refinancings of used or existing manufactured homes.

Bank stocks are on a tear after Donald Trump's victory drove up expectations for the industry's profits. Here's the catch for many people working there: Holding onto their jobs won't be any easier.

Businesses, governments, universities and the Federal Reserve all struggle to adequately reflect the populations they serve. It's time to take ownership of diversity outcomes.

Welcome to the new PaymentsSource Morning Briefing, delivered daily. The information you need to start your day, including top headlines from PaymentsSource and around the Web: Lessons from Ashley Madison; Amazon's digital shopping experiment; and the U.S. pushes back against hackers.

The commercial-and-industrial loan space is overheated, higher rates could stifle mortgage refinancings, and subprime auto delinquencies are on the rise. Bankers could be fighting these fires and more in the new year.

Hope Bancorp in Los Angeles will close an additional nine branches next year as part of a second round of cost cutting.

Peter Wannemacher, senior analyst at Forrester, explains why Europe's PSD2 regulation matters to U.S. banks and why it will be a hot topic in 2017. He also shares his tech predictions for 2017 and a few contrarian warning

Online lenders could be opening doors for female entrepreneurs; the San Francisco Fed's Mary Daly talks about closing the gender gap in the research department; Barclays' UK diversity chief shares mentor-mentee relationship tips; Centric's Patti Husic creates a millennial advisory board. Carver Bancorp's former CEO is joining Citi's board and we take a look at Mary Jo White's possible successor. Plus, a look back at the year for Mary Mack, Carrie Tolstedt, Kathie Andrade and Nandita Bakhshi.

The time banks have to investigate red-flagged credit payments has shrunk from several days to a few hours and fraudsters have already taken notice.

PHH is selling its remaining residential mortgage servicing portfolio to the real estate investment trust New Residential.

If companies like Amazon, Apple and Google enter in force the battle between banks and fintech firms over customers' personal data, it could tip the scales against the banking industry.

Cash machine transactions have held steady over the past three years, despite the rise of mobile and peer-to-peer payments, according to Andy Mattes, CEO of ATM manufacturer Diebold Nixdorf. "Consumers embrace all types of payment," Mattes says.

Dime Community Bancshares in Brooklyn, N.Y., will record a one-time charge after approving changes to its employee stock ownership plan.

Daryl Tressler will retire as president and CEO of MainSource Bank in Greensburg, Ind., at the end of this year.