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Opinion

3 ways to reimagine loyalty redemption in a post-COVID world

Providing offers consumers care about is not enough, writes Mastercard executive Jamie Samaha. A clunky, manual redemption process can leave cardholders feeling disengaged or duped.

Commerzbank names next CEO, months after investor unrest

Germany's second-largest lender poached an executive from rival Deutsche with a reputation as a shrewd cost cutter, in an attempt to right a bank whose shares have lost half their value in the past 18 months.

Column

With race, as with office returns, banks follow the herd or react to it

Citi's billion-dollar pledge and Deutsche's stay-home policy show when one bank misfires, another redirects the narrative.

Wells Fargo, Envestnet Yodlee sign data-sharing agreement

With the deal — the bank's 17th with a data aggregator — about 99% of the lender's third-party financial app screen scraping will be transitioning to API-based access.

FinCEN business loan fraud reports jump 84% for 4th straight monthly record

Financial institutions filed 1,922 suspicious-activity reports in August, up from 1,044 in July and about 14 times the monthly average since the watchdog's database was established in 2014. July's total itself was more than double June's 489.

UPDATED: Sept. 25, 2020 at 5:59 a.m.

Citi pledges more than $1B toward closing racial wealth gap

Much of the funding is aimed at boosting Black homeownership and entrepreneurship, but the bank also wants to root out biases in its software and eliminate out-of-network ATM fees for minority depository institution customers.

Wells Fargo CEO Scharf comes under fire over diversity comments

The bank's pledge to double Black leadership created a domino effect in the industry, but the executive's assertion that the talent pool is "very limited" got under some people's skin. He apologized Wednesday.

How Citi's innovation lab is tackling COVID-19 challenges

The unit, for example, built a digital whiteboarding solution to help job candidates and managers interact through an on-screen notebook when interviews can't take place face to face.

3 more ex-Wells Fargo execs face OCC bans or fines

The regulator banned a former finance officer and fined him $925,000 for his role in the 2016 fake accounts scandal. Two other managers face personal cease-and-desist orders and penalties of $400,000 and $350,000.

Fed pushes its own plan for CRA overhaul

The central bank would test banks' retail lending and community development separately and expand the activities for which banks could receive CRA credit.

Pittsburgh becomes a battleground for national banking powerhouses

While JPMorgan and Bank of America expand their footprint into PNC's backyard, smaller banks say they maintain a customer relationship advantage. Though, with technology, that may wane, an analyst says.

Banks on pace to cut more than 80K jobs this year, highest since 2015

The actual number is likely higher, Bloomberg reported, because many banks reduce headcount without announcing they are doing so. But many that do are cutting costs, like Wells Fargo, or investing in technology, like Citi.

At $14.5B, Chime surpasses Robinhood as top-valued fintech

The challenger bank has more than tripled its transaction volume and revenue this year and is adding hundreds of thousands of accounts each month, CEO Chris Britt told CNBC.

FinCEN overhaul to AML rules would bring clarity, experts say

However, not all institutions will favor the "one size fits all" solution, said regulatory, risk and compliance expert Julie Copeland.

Column

4 Federal Reserve storylines to follow this month

The central bank published two scenarios Thursday under which it will test lenders' resilience. But dividend caps, share buybacks, the CRA and Main Street lending are also top of mind.

Crypto exchange Kraken gets Wyoming banking license

The company pulled out of New York in 2015, after executives saw the state's BitLicense as too invasive.

Biden tax plan could cost top 10 banks $7B per year, report finds

The plan would raise the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, partially rolling back changes enacted under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Deutsche extends remote option until July 2021 for NY-area employees

The timeline coincides with the planned opening of the German lender's new U.S. headquarters. It also stands in stark contrast to JPMorgan Chase, which mandates that its sales and trading staff return next week.

Stripe offers $20K bonus — and a pay cut — to relocating workers

About 49% of 6,000 users polled in the workplace forum Blind said they wouldn't take a pay cut for doing the same work, but 44% said they'd agree to lower pay in exchange for better work-life balance and a lower cost of living.

JPMorgan, Goldman send staff home after employees test COVID-positive

Two days after JPMorgan communicated news of the case to workers, CEO Jamie Dimon said offices should "carefully open up and see if we can get the economy growing for the sake of everybody."

UPDATED: Sept. 18, 2020 at 10:54 a.m.

PNC looks to shutter 280 branches by the end of next year

The bank is on track to double the number of closures it expected this year, thanks to the pandemic. But the Pittsburgh-based lender has been in the "consolidation business" for some time, executives have said.

Neobank Unifimoney partners with DriveWealth to offer investing services

The San Francisco-based startup, which describes itself as a neobank for affluent millennials, is the latest fintech to use automation to help customers save and invest money.

Citi resumes job cuts, faces regulator reprimand over risk management

The prospect of the multiyear system revamp prompted CEO Michael Corbat to push up his plans to retire so his successor could see the effort through from the beginning.

Pandemic accelerated KeyBank's digital shift by 5 years, CEO says

The executive didn't give a target number of branches the Cleveland-based bank aims to close, but said customers' embrace of digital channels allows an "opportunity to ramp up" the transformation to a "more impactful" footprint.

Many banks not yet accepting PPP forgiveness applications

Lenders are awaiting more guidance from the federal government, as well as potential legislative action. Here is what some of the country's top banks are telling customers.