Online banking

The estimated costs of recent digital glitches at BB&T, TD and Wells Fargo are in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but contractual and economic realities make it hard for banks to sue vendors for the money or fall back on insurance policies.

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.

The digital-only Ally Bank has taken several steps to deepen customer relationships through electronic channels, including use of personalized emails and websites that have yielded strong click-through and loyalty rates.

The North Carolina bank is the latest regional to experience a widespread outage.

The bank will allow its customers to apply for car financing online and receive a decision within minutes.

Scores of customers have been unable to use digital channels to access accounts for more than a week, and many have taken to social media to voice their displeasure with TD’s response to the outage. The lesson for other banks: Test new platforms, and test them again, before making them live.

As regulators look to update the Community Reinvestment Act, they should better integrate online and mobile banking activity as part of exam performance.

Webster Bank’s partnership with the national broker-dealer LPL is a reversal of its initial opposition to robo-advisers. It is the latest regional bank to enter a market first claimed by the biggest banks.

The bank joins a small group of companies that believe short-term forecasts will ultimately help customers build healthier financial lives.

Its latest partner, Mantl, has built software that lets consumers open accounts in four minutes. In such alliances Radius seeks expertise it lacks, gets heavily involved in product development, and tries to balance the spirit of innovation with the demands of compliance.