Disruptors

Although much of banking is cautiously optimistic about the Trump presidency, the financial firms and organizations that serve the unbanked see the election as a mixed bag at best so far.

The way we buy today is already different than just a few years ago. In a decade, it will be totally transformed. Here is what every company must do to stay relevant and competitive in the coming decade of unprecedented disruption.

Chatter about bank-nonbank combinations pops up frequently, as it did in a low-profile way this week, but there are reasons you should be skeptical even in these anything-could-happen times.

JPMorgan Chase has partnered with the fintech firm Roostify to build a digital self-service mortgage platform.

Opus Bank has hired Scarlett Sieber, the former senior vice president in global business development at BBVA, to be its chief innovation officer.

By partnering with the matchmaking platform Opportunity Network, Citizens will be able to better connect corporate clients to deals worldwide.

If the new White House engages in the same process of listening to and researching the fintech industry that President Obama initiated eight years ago, startups should just take a pass.

2016 was very good to these financial services executives, who succeeded where others failed, sold their businesses for large sums, felt the love of regulators or could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

Now that the OCC has proposed a limited-purpose bank charter for fintech companies, a host of innovative new banks will soon flood the market — or maybe not.

Scandal, business models gone awry, missing money and executive shake-ups — 2016 had it all. Here are the financial services executives or groups of them who took the heat and will be looking for better times in 2017.

When BankMobile, the brainchild of Jay Sidhu and his daughter Luvleen, relaunches on a new platform in January, security — especially for the onboarding process — will be completely redesigned.

Cross River Bank, which processes payments and funds loans for fintech startups, says that if such firms got a federal charter, it could help them another way: teaching them compliance.

A preview of the next version of Moven's personal financial management app finds a new direction — helping people understand the trade-offs they make between short-term and long-term financial goals.

Whether banks view them as rivals or partners, fintech firms' rising influence is prompting banks to make a host of welcome changes, including heavy recruitment of young, tech-savvy professionals, according to heads of several major U.S. banks.

Refusing to let innovators experiment in a permissive environment keeps regulators in the dark, and ultimately, prevents progress in financial services.

Serial fintech entrepreneur Chris Larsen plans to take a breather. In January, Larsen will hand the reins and the CEO title at Ripple over to Brad Garlinghouse, who is currently the company's president and chief operating officer.

The investment bank will take "a very deliberate and methodical approach" to building its online lending platform, Chief Financial Officer Harvey Schwartz told investors Tuesday, implicitly drawing a contrast to once-highflying startups like Lending Club and Propser.

When retailers first started developing mobile wallet apps, they did so to fight back against Apple Pay and the banks. Today, they are working against a bigger threat: Amazon.com.

Goldman Sachs' newly launched consumer lending website is aimed at some of the very same customers that big banks and marketplace lenders covet, yet there are plenty of questions about its business plan, its ability to manage credit risk and the prospects of online lenders in general.

It's official: Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment banking titan, now offers consumer loans.