PayThink

President-elect Trump's embrace of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance is a political gambit that has already paid off. But greenlighting crypto's intermingling with traditional finance would create an asset bubble that would be especially painful to pop.

The demand for embedded finance is not going away, but the initial rollout of banking as a service relied far too much on middleware providers without expertise in compliance and oversight. BaaS 2.0 must feature a more bank-centric approach.

The technology has the potential to democratize access to knowledge about financial services, but like any tool, it must be used carefully and responsibly.

As the banking industry becomes increasingly technology-dependent, wise bank leaders recognize that a bank is not solely defined by its buildings, technology or pricing. It is human connections that truly set a bank apart.

The U.S. is well behind other countries in implementing open banking and delivering its benefits to customers. Brazil's success in that area can serve as a useful model.

"Too big to fail" banking giants like to masquerade as community banks when it suits their purposes, but they will never be able to replace real, local bankers with deep ties to their customers.

In a string of speeches last week, the top federal banking regulators outlined goals and framed their thinking about artificial intelligence in financial services, but the biggest questions around liability and widespread adoption remain unanswered.

The National Credit Union Administration lacks the authority to regulate third-party vendors that supply vital services to the industry. This creates a major risk to credit union customers and the broader U.S. economy.

Natural disasters are becoming more frequent and more severe, and victims will always require support from their banks. A plan for delivering that support needs to be in place before disaster strikes.

A punitive tax on payments sent overseas to the families of immigrants would have a cascading set of consequences — all of them bad.