Underbanked

Grupo Coppel and Insikt, an online lender, would appear to be cut from different cloth, but they share an expertise in providing credit to working-class, largely Hispanic consumers. The retail conglomerate also operates 1,000 bank branches in Mexico, mixing banking and commerce in a way that U.S. regulators have not allowed.

House and Senate bills contain a provision that would let financial firms in all states use digital scans of photo IDs to verify identities of prospective customers. That could ease the account-opening process for consumers in areas where branches are few and far between.

OneUnited is trimming branches and expanding digital offerings as it builds its brand as a backer of social justice that develops innovative products such as a Black-Lives-Matter-themed debit card.

House and Senate bills contain a provision that would let financial firms in all states use digital scans of photo IDs to verify identities of prospective customers. That could ease the account-opening process for consumers in areas where branches are few and far between.

The short-term loan industry is suddenly playing offense in Washington following Mick Mulvaney's appointment as acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The grant monies will go to 12 credit unions in 17 different states.

Carver Bancorp, which has spent 70 years serving minorities in Harlem and surrounding neighborhoods, is struggling to turn a profit. As black-run banks nationwide struggle to stay afloat, Carver's CEO insists the institution is on the right track.

Evidence that the credit characteristics of online installment borrowers at the time of repayment are consistently worse than at the time of borrowing should be a sobering thought for lenders that have not been fully tested in a credit downturn.

The Cleveland Fed's conclusion that U.S. consumers are typically worse off after getting online loans encountered strong pushback from industry groups and the company that provided the data.

Consumers who have borrowed from online lenders owe more and have lower credit scores than similarly situated consumers who have not used online lenders, according to a study released Thursday by the Cleveland Fed. The provocative findings seem likely to spark intense debate.

Rather than pull up stakes and leave two low-income Mississippi towns at the mercy of payday lenders, Regions Bank donated the branches to a local credit union and kicked in another $500,000 for operating costs.

Bill Donnelly was named the first-ever finance chief at San Francisco-based LendUp.

Capital Corps, led by Steven Sugarman, aims to provide financing to homeowners and small businesses that it believes are overlooked by banks. The firm features several former Banc of California executives.

The company, which recently bought Sabadell United in Miami, is pledging to make billions of dollars in mortgages and small business loans in low- and moderate-income communities.

Deserve is offering unsecured cards to young adults who do not have traditional credit scores. The Silicon Valley startup uses a proprietary algorithm that analyzes bank account activity to evaluate the likelihood that borrowers will repay.

TD Bank has pledged $3 million to provide credit counseling to small-business owners. The hope is that those owners will use commercial loans to replace personal credit cards and home equity as their primary forms of business funding.

The ROI with the incremental costs and considerations will determine whether to proceed or not whether it is cashless, cash, or other alternative payment methods, writes Laura Townsend, senior vice president of the Merchant Advisory Group.

Banks could help narrow the financing gap for U.N. development goals to be met, but changes in Basel and loan guarantee standards are necessary.

The tech giant won praise from consumer groups for its decision to ban ads for high-cost consumer loans. But the policy contains a big loophole, and advertisers have found multiple ways to exploit it.

In a new book, Mehrsa Baradaran argues that the same forces of poverty that African-American banks were supposed to alleviate are now holding them back.