Jennifer Tescher

An industry lawsuit seeks to undermine a rule put forward by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that would make it much easier for consumers to manage their own financial health.

The OCC's new Vital Signs initiative gives bankers an important tool to help them assess the financial health and stability of their customers, and to help them build a strong foundation for the future.

The risk of harm to users' financial health is much greater with direct-to-consumer advances than it is from earned wage access programs.

The global protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death should serve as a reminder that the banking industry must do more to support minority employees and customers.

Financial education programs have been shown to be largely ineffective. What low-income consumers really need from banks are better products and more tailored advice.

The agency’s recent bulletin could help banks get back into the small-dollar lending business, keeping needy borrowers out of debt traps. But other regulatory limits remain in focus.

Big banks increasingly are developing application programming interfaces to make their customers’ data available to third parties. But discrete deals between banks and third parties would be a bad outcome for consumers and the industry as a whole.