The U.S. online lender provides credit lines of up to $150,000 to small businesses that shop at Alibaba.com.

Readers weigh in on pushback by appraisers to a new regulatory proposal, consider credit card issuers' role in the gun debate, respond to recent credit union mergers and more.

Affirm, which for six years has plied its trade as a point-of-sale lender, wants to move deeper into banking by offering a high-rate savings account.

Nicolas Kopp, head of N26 in this country, explains how the company plans to spend a chunk of the proceeds on its expansion here and add to the intensifying competition among fintechs.

Its data-driven financial management services for workers who live paycheck to paycheck — and a contract with Walmart — have attracted executives from Facebook, Slack and elsewhere as well as a major investment from the head of Box.

Saul Van Beurden will have oversight of both technology and information security and will report to CEO Tim Sloan.

Automating the loan application process is a potentially game-changing development that could put more car shoppers in control of which bank or credit union finances their purchase.

Investments in software can speed up decision-making and help traditional lenders better compete with fintechs for creditworthy customers who want their loans quickly.

As consumers continue to migrate to banking apps, it may be tempting for banks to focus solely on improving that channel experience. But doing so would be making the same mistake as focusing only on cards or cash at the point of sale.

The coming year will bring a wave of data-sharing deals between banks and fintechs, increased bank use of automated advice, marked changes to financial jobs as a result of automation, and much more.