A man entered a SunTrust branch in Sebring, Fla., and shot and killed five women, four of whom were bank employees; 24 million mortgage documents exposed in data security lapse; the battle for deposits is like "a steel-cage" match; and more from this week's most-read stories.

The core-banking vendor won the investment and ringing endorsements from the trade group and several banks because its open system and cloud delivery could eventually challenge entrenched tech players.

Fiserv’s $22 billion deal to acquire First Data creates pressure to scale core banking and payment processing that may force further industry consolidation.

Spring Labs is spearheading a group of prominent fintech lenders to use a blockchain-based, peer-to-peer network to share consumer information to help with ID verification on loan applications.

There’s no reason for the central bank to prohibit nonbank financial firms from entering the payments system as long as appropriate rules are put in place to protect against risk.

EU states such as Belgium, Lithuania and Ireland are offering e-money institution, payments institution or banking licenses to fintechs, which can be passported across Europe, in anticipation of the U.K. losing its ability to do so after Brexit. But there is no cross-border deposit protection for European consumers holding accounts at EU banks with passported licenses.

The company protects digital assets with hardware-based security, biometrics and quorums. Hedge funds are already signing on.

Timothy Mayopoulos is back in the mortgage industry, becoming the new president of the digital mortgage technology developer Blend, months after leaving his post as Fannie Mae’s CEO.

Large financial institutions need to adopt a new mindset to compete with tech startups, one that allows them to take risks and put aside legacy systems.

Brian Knight at George Mason University says fintechs will be held accountable for legal violations in sandboxes — and banks can use sandboxes, too.