Core systems

Community banks and credit unions have banded together to use their combined bargaining power to wrest better terms from what they regard as an oligopoly of core processing vendors.

Banks are trying to upgrade tech offerings, from mobile banking to bill pay. But that's easier said than done, in part because the biggest core processors use their dominant market share to restrict access to banks' networks. They do this, in part, because they offer their own competing tech products.

Corezoid is courting the U.S. banking industry with a cloud-based solution its founder developed while working at a Ukraine bank.

The Clearing House, Dwolla and Ripple Labs are among more than 20 companies that are vying to play a lead role in modernizing the U.S. payment system.

One of the most innovative banks has joined a trade group that represents the nascent blockchain and digital currency industry.

PNC recently held an API Fest where it asked its employees to pitch customer innovation ideas. With the move, PNC joins a growing number of U.S. banks embracing the possibility that open APIs offer.

Community banks are grappling with a quickly changing operating environment, but they might have some practical advantages over large banks in building partnerships with fintech firms, and those relationships could give them the competitive edge they seek.

Traditional banks are not likely to match the nimbleness of a fintech startup for a whole variety of reasons. But that doesn't mean all is lost.

For years, U.S. financial institutions have taken the position that it was riskier to replace legacy core systems than to leave well enough alone. Here's why that's beginning to change.

Banks are slowly warming up to the idea of open APIs, essentially tools that allow banks to easily connect with others, but BBVA's Shamir Karkal says that they will likely also push banks to modernize their core systems.

It's easy to get lost in the technological complexity of "application programming interfaces," but banks need to stay focused on improving business and customer outcomes, which is the ultimate goal.

As they look to cut costs, banks are looking across the globe for cheap spots to host parts of their operations. A new report identifies the best back-office bargains.

Technology at many banks has been assembled haphazardly over years. That makes for complex systems with lots of connections. Those points are prime targets for cybercriminals to find a way in.

In focusing on private blockchains, banks make the same mistake companies made in the nineties when they favored private information networks over the open protocols of the Internet.

Hailed as a space- and cost-saver, interactive video teller machines don't always succeed as a strategy. Many banks offer them without a clear business case to justify the investment.

Adam Draper of Boost VC talks about the rise of the blockchain, the challenges of the bitcoin world and the future of banking.

The British challenger bank Mondo raised $1.4 million in 96 seconds, it announced Thursday.

BBVA has recruited Simple co-founder Shamir Karkal to build a platform that would open the bank's application program interfaces to outside fintech companies.

Bank of Prairie Village in Kansas went through a core conversion last year. Its chairman hopes that his sons, who are set to take over the bank eventually, won't be afraid to embrace new technology since they've experienced the scariest of all bank IT projects.

Frandsen Financial took the industry's plan to allow faster payments as a call to action. It invested in automation software, which allowed employees previously bogged down with manual tasks to focus on more meaningful duties.