JPMorgan Chase has made an equity investment of an undisclosed size in InvestCloud, a startup that provides cloud-based software to the securities industry.

Banks continue to gather ID documents manually from would-be customers, even ones who sought to open accounts online. Bringing the manual process into the digital age is the goal of several startups.

Paper-based marketing — not digital communication — remains a more promising way to reach customers 50 and older, who also tend to be a bank's wealthiest client segment.

Gemini Trust Co., the U.S.-based digital-currency exchange founded by entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, is introducing a daily bitcoin auction to facilitate price discovery and larger trades at lower costs.

Virtual currency advocates are hoping a recent surge of support in Congress can help them accomplish a long-sought goal of creating a safe-harbor for companies that do not directly hold customers' funds.

In order to successfully and scalably combat card-related fraud and digital payments hacking, organizations need to rely less on standards like EMV and PAN/PRN, and recognize today’s currency is no longer just about money.

Bankers may have a reputation for being old-school, but their rapidly growing digital-ad budgets are in step with the rest of the business world. Banks can both gather valuable demographic data from who clicks on their ads and better measure returns on their investments.

Banks can be more effective in connecting with customers by offering them personalized communications, rather than bombarding them with general sales pitches.

Digital has been seen as the death knell of branches, but banks like JPMorgan, B of A and UMB are among those making the case that branches can still set banks apart from rivals provided they get leaner and offer customers a blend of tech support and financial expertise.

Increasingly, our conversations about digital banking are only about technology. We must expand our dialogue to include ways to make digital banking empathetic.