Start-up funding

Stilt, which had already been offering unsecured loans to newcomers to the U.S., is working with technology and banking partners to offer them deposit accounts and debit cards.

E-commerce firms and payment apps can reach new users and investors through crowdfunding, says Prime Trust's Bruce Dyer.

Ludwig, a former regulator and CEO of Promontory Financial, and Mahan, the head of Live Oak Bancshares, say they want to back tech startups that support community banks. The ABA and ICBA are among the fund's investors.

The State Bank Group and The Provident Bank are backing Neocova, which focuses on community banks.

HMBradley will assign interest rates according to how much customers set aside from direct deposits each month.

The Independent Community Bankers of America provided seed funding for Teslar Software, which supplies community banks with a platform to manage data from different internal systems.

Aura is one of the few fintechs in the nation to have a community development financial institution designation from the Treasury Department.

The investments that Rana Yared's team makes in startups help Goldman Sachs in two ways: Besides earning a profit, the company also uses a lot of the technology the startups develop as part of its internal digital transformation.

The New York company formed the nationwide group after hiring a team of former Square 1 bankers.

Some lenders, especially in markets like California, are preparing in case of a technology-industry stumble that hurts business, real estate and other loan segments. Whether those fears are well founded is a matter of debate.