Checking

News that Amazon is courting banks to help it offer its own branded checking account raises major questions about which banks could be helped or hurt, who would control the relationship and how Amazon's partner(s) would make money.

As with most of the company's inventions, an Amazon checking account would more deeply embed customers into an Amazon ecosystem that provides an endless flow of data and efficiencies.

Amazon.com Inc. is in talks with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Capital One Financial Corp. about offering the tech giant’s customers a product similar to a checking account.

Urban FT has acquired Digiliti, a troubled developer of mobile banking app technology, and will integrate its services into its white-label banking platform.

As organizations look to AP to take on more strategic planning, budgeting, and cash management activities, they have to use automation to get rid of the manual, repetitive, non-value-added tasks they’re doing now, writes Brent Meyers, vice president of national sales for Nvoicepay.

Reps. Elijah Cummings and Jimmy Gomez, both Democrats, questioned why B of A would stop offering accounts that are popular with low-income consumers when it stands to reap huge financial benefits from recently passed tax cuts.

Bank will add 400 branches and boost mortgage lending; the company attempts first acquisition since it nearly failed during the financial crisis.

Readers react to the Federal Housing Finance Agency considering changing its credit scoring policy, slam the possibility of enforcing mandatory penalties for data breaches at credit reporting agencies, weigh the possible nomination of a credit union regulator to the CFPB, and more.

Customers saw transactions recorded multiple times and experienced drained accounts and long hold times. It’s a warning to all financial institutions as they head further into mobile-only banking — glitches are more visible and painful and need to be addressed faster than ever.

For all of the noise in the payments industry around transitioning to real-time and same-day digital payments — and in the mainstream media around the bitcoin craze — paper checks still persist as the preferred means of disbursement for the majority of business-to-business transactions.

Regional and community banks will offer low-cost or no-cost financial products through Bank On, which has already reached agreements with Regions Bank, Wells Fargo and SunTrust.

SMBs are choosing virtual cards as their preferred form of electronic payments because they solve many of their payment challenges, while also helping them avoid the costs associated with custom software solutions designed for larger businesses, writes Blair Jeffery, COO of Noventis.

Financial technology companies are reinventing every aspect of business finance, starting with payments. Banks have long promised to automate supplier payments for their customers, but have fallen far short, writes Brent Meyers, vice president of national sales for Nvoicepay.

Legislation and regulatory policy that takes a heavy-handed view of overdraft protection could remove a safe and convenient option for consumers managing their finances.

When JotForm launched in 2006, the company’s first priority was providing a quick way for clubs and organizations to gather personal details from members online. Payments were an afterthought.

The industry has the opportunity to expedite gains in interoperability and realize significant cost savings and productivity gains for both the clinical and administrative sides of the industry, writes Chris Seib, chief technology officer and cofounder of InstaMed.

New York credit union is converting to the Symitar Episys core processing system, as well as a suite of related solutions from Synergent.

Workers CU is the latest to make direct deposit funds available to members before the the electronic funds transfer is complete.

House Democrats are lobbying for a bill to reform the way banks charge overdraft fees, but recognizing that Republicans are unlikely to take up the legislation, they are hoping the CFPB can act on its own.

The benefits of adopting an end-to-end payments solution are substantial and will help businesses collaborate with vendors and customers, while saving time and money, writes Stephen Markwell, head of treasury services product strategy for commercial banking at JPMorgan Chase.