Mobile banking

Bank innovation has tended to focus on retail customers, but expect more technology for commercial customers in the coming year as those clients deman products that are easy to use and help them run more efficient enterprises.

Banks face immense challenges trying to keep up with technology, but they also must cater to older customers with big deposit accounts who still use their branch.

For steering the Winston-Salem, N.C., company through an extended period of industry adversity, while providing a blueprint for large-scale M&A, King has been named American Banker's Banker of the Year for 2015.

Moven will soon prompt its customers for usernames and passwords only for riskier transactions. By removing the login for most functions, the company aims to drive engagement in an app meant to be used on the go.

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.

Developing banking solutions for lower-income consumers means getting to the heart of the financial volatility they face trying to make ends meet.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Banks have a lot of work to do to modernize branches and keep their technology on par with other businesses' digital tools. Here are some ideas worth borrowing from retailers, restaurants and consumer electronics makers if banks haven't adopted them already, says appointment-software firm Financial Management Solutions.

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.

With the outlook for mobile payments improving, American Express has brought together several initiatives in this area under a new umbrella dubbed Amex Enabled Digital Solution.

U.S. Bank recently updated its mobile app to a system that would allow it to react more quickly to new technology. It's going to need that flexibility now that consumers are complaining about missing features in the latest upgrade.

A few months after introducing its mobile wallet in the U.S., BBVA is attempting to lure adoption through 'instant' cash-back credit card rewards for qualified transactions at checkout.

Customer expectations for digital are a moving target, and banks and their vendors are quickly trying to figure out which products and services to add next.

Royal Bank of Canada's chief executive, Dave McKay, says the company could roll out a loyalty system kept on a blockchain next year as it experiments with distributed ledgers and looks to enhance its mobile wallet.

There's another fintech accelerator coming to New York.

BMO Financial Group has recruited Niti Badarinath from U.S. Bancorp to manage its online, mobile and physical channels in North America.