Banking

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. Today: Carnival gets into wearables; blockchain players head to Davos; a Scottish university offers a Masters of Fintech; Amazon ties Alexa to order ahead app.

Carolina Alliance Bank in Spartanburg, S.C., is planning to form a holding company.

Traditional checking hasn't faded nearly as fast as original predictions at the dawn of online banking. Checks will remain a major part of payments, though there are some signs of an eventual decline.

Banks are grappling with new challenges in trying to work with voice assistants like Alexa in Amazon's Echo to allow customers to check balances and perform other tasks. But with voice banking on the horizon, banks cannot afford to stall their efforts.

The $605 million-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing that Stephen Marsh, its CEO since 2008, retired on Dec. 31.

First Financial Bancorp in Cincinnati has converted its banking unit from a national charter to a state charter.

Mark Wierman, the chief lending officer at Ixonia Bank in Wisconsin, now has a second title: president.

Wells Fargo's innovation group has appointed Peggy Mangot for the newly created position of senior vice president of its design and delivery leadership team.

Royal Bank of Canada has introduced a video chat service for its small-business banking customers whose hectic lives may not allow for frequent branch visits.

Ally Financial in Detroit has agreed to provide up to $600 million in financial backing for Carvana’s online auto sales.

Clarity Money, an artificial intelligence-driven payment concierge, launched on Wednesday, a move its founders hope will provide consumers with an advanced financial health tool.

Almost 40 years ago, a rock music legend asked a question that too many banks are failing to address today.

Lakeland Bancorp in Oak Ridge, N.J., has named a new chief financial officer and chief operating officer as two other executives plan to retire.

F&M Bank Corp. in Timberville, Va., has acquired Valley Southern Title in Harrisonburg, Va.

Mastercard's $900 million acquisition of British payment company VocaLink is under fire, as the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority contends the deal will give the card network an unfair advantage in ATM-related negotiations.

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. Today: U.K. pressures Mastercard on VocaLink deal; Samsung plans new web refrigerators; Synaptics consolidates biometrics; voice command tech accelerates.

The current single-director leadership structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is not a recipe for transparency and accountability. Creating a multimember commission to oversee the agency is the answer.

Directors today are expected to perform many duties that, even a decade ago, weren't part of the job, from overseeing cybersecurity and the bank's culture to setting online and mobile strategy. Yet the composition of many bank boards hasn't changed all that much. Here's what to do if you have longtime members who lack the skills needed to help a bank compete.

The state's highest court ruled that lenders affiliated with Native American tribes are not entitled to sovereign immunity and must comply with state interest rate caps. It marks the latest triumph for consumer groups and state governments that have sought to rein in high-cost consumer lenders.

American Banker is pleased to bring you Breaking Banks, hosted by Brett King, and featuring the editors of American Banker.