Podcasts

Distributed ledger projects in banking are few and far between — many have stalled and others remain experiments. Robert Townsend, who has worked with banks around the world and written a book about blockchain technology, explains some of the ways financial institutions could be using it, for instance in small-business lending and supply chain finance.

The average American’s financial picture is bleaker than government data suggests, according to the former comptroller of the currency. Research from his new organization, the Ludwig Institute for Shared Economic Prosperity, has found that unemployment is higher and household wages are lower than reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Vanessa Colella taught earth science and biology to middle schoolers through Teach for America before becoming Citigroup's new chief innovation officer. Her experience in the classroom still sticks with her today.

Regulators around the world are exploring how to assess banks' exposures to climate change risks. But they'll have to tackle legal, economic and modeling problems that don’t have obvious solutions.

Many big companies have made pledges to diversify their workforces, treat minority communities more fairly and clean up the environment to burnish their images, says Meredith Benton, CEO of the consultancy Whistle Stop Capital. But few are willing to share data to prove it's all more than a PR campaign, she says.

Looming defaults and the potential for heavier regulatory scrutiny have prompted banks to pull back from the sector. Is that a good thing?

Like many banks, TD Bank Group had to move swiftly to spin up new self-service tools tied to chat channels, e-signatures and PPP lending. Innovation chief Michael Rhodes will continue the faster financial approval and development cycles that COVID necessitated.

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican, leads a new congressional caucus aimed at educating members about fintech issues. She says her state could serve as a model for regulating digital assets.

Retail investors revolted against institutional investors by buying heavily shorted stocks in January, reanimating regulatory concerns about short selling and market manipulation. But is shorting a check on speculation, or a driver of it?

The Providence, R.I., bank partners with tech companies like Apple and Microsoft, it has 25 fintech partnerships and it rewards employees for new ideas, says CEO Bruce Van Saun.