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Under the hood of U.S. Bank's new mobile app

Tim Welsh, head of consumer and small-business banking at U.S. Bancorp.
AI-driven customer insights, mortgages and small-business loans are among the features in the app, which the bank is rolling out Friday.

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BofA, Wells Fargo sour on blockchain

Cathy Bessant of Bank of America and Tim Sloan of Wells Fargo.
They haven't thrown in the towel yet, but comments by top executives at the two big banks suggested that their interest in finding financial services uses for distributed ledgers is wearing very thin.

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Fannie and Freddie are way too big

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A Freddie Mac sign stands outside the company's headquarters in McLean, Virginia, U.S., on Tuesday, April 8, 2014. Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said a bipartisan bill to replace Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is too complicated and doesn't do enough to address too-big-to-fail concerns or provide assistance for affordable housing. The panel will consider the measure on April 29. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
The government-sponsored enterprises have continued to expand over the past decade, despite being in conservatorship. New leadership at the FHFA should reverse this trend.

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Equifax, FICO join forces to give banks one-stop analytics product

Equifax CEO Mark Begor
Mark Begor, chief executive officer of Equifax Inc., speaks during a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, March 7, 2019. CEOs from Marriott International Inc. and Equifax today will face tough questions from a Senate Homeland Security panel about data breaches that exposed millions of Americans' sensitive information. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
Al Drago/Bloomberg
The new cloud-based solution is intended to help financial institutions make quicker credit decisions by integrating consumers' histories with advanced software.

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House likely to pass marijuana banking bill, but will it go further?

Marijuana plants grow in a greenhouse at the Los Suenos Farms facility in Avondale, Colorado.
Marijuana plants grow in a greenhouse at the Los Suenos Farms facility in Avondale, Colorado, U.S., on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016. About 938 dispensaries, which outnumber Starbucks in Colorado, in 2015 yielded $135 million in state taxes and fees, 44 percent more than a year earlier. Yet as the market enters its third year after voters legalized retail sales in 2012, officials question whether the newfound income outweighs the escalating social costs. Photographer: Matthew Staver/Bloomberg
Matthew Staver/Bloomberg
Banks and credit unions may be moving one step closer to federal legislation freeing them to serve legal pot businesses, but the path to enactment is still fraught with huge challenges.

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What the new Apple credit card means for Goldman Sachs

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The Silicon Valley partnership represents an extension of — but also a departure from — the consumer strategy that Goldman has been pursuing since the launch of its digital consumer bank, Marcus.

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Will Trump administration suspend GSE housing trust funds?

Acting FHFA Director and Comptroller of the Currency Joseph Otting
Joseph Otting, comptroller of the U.S. currency, speaks during a Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) meeting at the U.S. Treasury in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, March 6, 2019. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin this week invoked special accounting measures through June 5 to continue paying the U.S. governments bills without breaching the legal debt ceiling. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
The Federal Housing Finance Agency in recent years has required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to contribute to the funds every March, but has yet to make a 2019 request. Housing groups see the delay as a troubling sign.

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The lessons in a marketing fumble by TD Bank

Photo of an ad posted at a TD Bank branch in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.
The Canadian bank recently caught flak over an ad in one of its branches that was seen as a slight against the diverse Boston community of Dorchester. Here's what other bankers can take away from the episode.

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Top Senate Democrat presses BB&T, SunTrust on impact of merger

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio
Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, questions Steven Mnuchin, Treasury secretary nominee for U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, during a Senate Finance Committee confirmation hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2017. Mnuchin defended his record as an owner of a mortgage lender that was accused of unfair loan and foreclosure practices during the financial crisis. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Senate Banking Committee's top Democrat, said the banks failed to provide enough information on how their proposed combination would affect employees and consumers.

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Shop at Amazon, get its stock: Stash's new debit rewards idea

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A new feature from the microinvesting app Stash allows users to accumulate free stock in the companies where they spend money.

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Mobile banking Blockchain GSE reform Marijuana banking Disruptors Marketing Loyalty and rewards U.S. Bank Bank of America Wells Fargo
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