Harmening, set to take the helm of Associated Banc-Corp next month, is being asked to replicate the digital transformation he led at Huntington Bancshares. His career path is a signal to the industry’s rising stars that the road to the corner office includes hands-on technology work.

The company is anticipating at least $175 million in losses in 2021, but its recent acquisition of Radius Bancorp will reduce funding costs and allow it to develop a full gamut of banking products that its CEO says will eventually yield big profits.

The Delaware company would remove a rival, gain scale in affluent Philadelphia suburbs and accelerate its transformation from a branch-heavy lender to a digital-first bank with the $976 million acquisition.

Square, LendingClub and SoFi are among the upstarts that once positioned themselves as outsiders but now seek to challenge banks more directly. Here's how they're doing it.

Andrew Harmening, who oversaw Huntington's digital strategy, will succeed the retiring Philip Flynn as president and CEO of the Wisconsin regional bank in April.

The acquisition of Golden Pacific Bank will accelerate the online lender’s effort to become a full-service bank.

“We were already shifting to recruiting more problem solvers than people handling transactions,” said Robert Fisher, CEO of Tioga State Bank in New York and incoming chairman of the Independent Community Bankers of America. “That pace of change has accelerated.”

Aspiration makes donations to a tree-planting charity based on debit card spending, buys carbon offsets for gas purchases and rates retailers' environmental records.

Challenger banks and fintechs can't be considered rivals, says Episode Six's John Mitchell.

The new directors are Ime Archibong, whose team builds and tests mobile apps at Facebook, and Craig Williams, president of the Nike product line named after former NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

Toronto-Dominion Bank said it will close 82 bank branches in the U.S. as part of a “store optimization” in its American unit, where net income dropped in the fiscal first quarter.

The fresh funding would recrown the Swedish company as Europe’s most valuable startup after the payments business Checkout.com was valued at $15 billion.

The Fortune 500 conglomerate has had discussions about merging Thrivent Credit Union, which operates independently of the company, into the bank if the charter is approved.

APIs and the cloud can help financial institutions reach consumers who have become accustomed to digital, says Episode Six's John Mitchell.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said a digital version of the dollar could help address hurdles to financial inclusion in the U.S. among low-income households.

MoneyLion and Opportunity Financial are following in the footsteps of financial technology businesses that have raised billions of dollars from special purpose acquisition companies. The quick injection of funds is expected to accelerate their growth as well as make them more competitive with banks and other mainstream financial services firms.

The automated investing tool is part of Goldman Sachs's effort to be a full-service digital bank and to help partners like Apple and Stripe offer financial products, according to Stephanie Cohen, global co-head of consumer and wealth management.

Paybby, whose founder wanted to address disparities in the financial system after the George Floyd protests, is working with banks and others to develop products especially for underserved communities. They include a debit card that substitutes for food stamps and an app that temporarily sweeps cash into cryptocurrency.

Others, like JPMorgan Chase, have shut down their mobile-only brands. But Rising Bank, Midwest BankCentre's three-year-old neobank, is meeting its deposit goals, adding new products and avoiding cannibalization, says Dale Oberkfell, the bank's president.

The regional bank is switching VirtualBank, a digital-only unit added through a recent merger, to a core system that relies on Finxact software and Amazon Web Services. The move epitomizes the industry's cautious approach to cloud-based technology.