Financial wellness

After the Cincinnati bank started a personal assistant service for new mothers, it learned new parents needed help with budgeting, and that motivated it to team up with a Goldman Sachs firm to establish a financial wellness program for all its employees.

The bank’s joint initiative with CFSI awards capital to firms trying to address issues that the startup teams personally experienced.

The consumer lender Oportun is rolling out a product designed to combat overdraft fees.

One problem is that banks are shifting to online and mobile channels for delivering advice, which is inferior to in-person communications, according to a recent survey conducted by J.D. Power.

It’s not just hourly workers who struggle to make ends meet — many managers also often find themselves short on cash each month. To help employees cope, the retail chain is using a tool developed by the fintech Even to give them access to their wages before the next pay period.

SunTrust and First Republic are taking benefits they offer to their workers, such as financial wellness training and student debt repayment, and extending them to corporate clients as benefits they can offer to their own employees. In doing so, they are strengthening relationships with valuable commercial customers.

Saving money is one of the most common — and most difficult — New Year's resolutions, but credit unions across the country are rolling out an array of options in early 2018 to help make that process easier.

Awards for social responsibility, philosophy-in-action and financial education were given to several credit unions of different asset sizes.

There are sobering conclusions to be drawn from a new report by the National Credit Union Foundation, funded by CUNA Mutual Group.

The aid helps credit unions create community reinvestment and financial education initiatives.

A study from Navy FCU reveals only a fraction of young adults say they engage in good financial behaviors – and that could be a big opportunity for credit unions.

Banks are being pushed into the background of popular digital experiences. But they can reappear on interfaces that customers use daily by doubling down on financial wellness efforts.

Greenlight Financial Technology offers a card that enables parents to control where their kids spend money.

Dr. Dan Geller, behavioral economist and author of "Money Anxiety," explains why Americans are more stressed about money than ever before and how fear affects their decisions about financial products and banks.

The bank says it will push the rest of the industry to follow its lead and step up lobbying for policies that increase minority homeownership.