Perhaps even more interesting than the blockchain project unveiled this week is how it came to be — and who is behind it.

FIS in Jacksonville, Fla., has partnered with the Venture Center to create an incubation lab to boost innovation in financial technology.

The success of a new blockchain-technology initiative will hinge on the ability of many influential players to work together: IBM, Digital Asset Holdings, R3, other tech companies, banks, Swift, the London Stock Exchange and the Linux Foundation.

Under the direction of Richard Holbrook, Eastern Bank has prepared itself for the next 200 years by embracing a culture innovation, adding scale through acquisitions and advocating for the less fortunate in its community. It's an unusual formula, but it has worked and that's why he is one of American Banker's three Community Bankers of the Year for 2015.

A startup backed by philanthropist Pierre Omidyar has emerged from stealth mode with technology that promises to provide consistent value and a degree of privacy to electronic money.

The United Kingdom has already seen the emergence of mobile-first institutions that have won regulatory approval for a banking charter. It is only a matter of time before they invade the U.S. market.

Digital Asset Holdings, a blockchain technology developer, has named former executives from SunGard Data Systems and Swift to its board and management team.

Relations between banks and fintech companies are starting to thaw as the two sides begin to acknowledge the advantages of scale that exist when they join forces.

For an industry on the precipice of redefining what a bank is and does, there's a disturbing absence of effort to welcome more women.

As the digital era continues to force banks to rethink what and who they are, institutions are increasingly pressured to relay their brand messages to consumers through newer mediums and in emotional ways rather than hard sales pitches.

Angus Deaton's efforts to improve understanding of poverty have helped open the door to financial services firms meeting the market demands of the world's poor.

Umpqua Holdings wants other banks to join its recently announced innovation lab in Silicon Valley. The company says if smaller banks pool resources they can compete with the deep pockets of the big banks in disruption.

Financial institutions' growing curiosity about so-called blockchain technology has spawned a new category of technology: blockchain as a service.

The core-processing vendor FIS wants to dream big like fintech startups when it comes to developing future services, but it also seeks to be large enough to offer multiple services in an era when banks are cutting back on third-party providers.

The vaguely defined term needs an overhaul to meet the financial demands of refugees and others long ignored by efforts to expand banking access.

KeyCorp is partnering with fintech firms to offer innovative payments products to its commercial clients, as interest in payments technology begins to spill over from retail into commercial.

Q2, in Austin, Texas, paid $10.6 million to acquire all outstanding interests in Social Money, according to a Tuesday news release. The purchase price was subject to a customary working capital adjustment.

Bank of the Ozarks' taste for M&A means its information-technology staff has to juggle integration projects and experiments with new software, mobile and other technologies.

The long-running tension between anti-money-laundering rules and data privacy concerns is especially pronounced in the awkward relationship between regulated financial institutions and digital currency businesses.

Hours after Jamie Dimon alluded to the budding partnership, the banking giant and marketplace lender went public with their plans to launch an online lending platform in 2016.