State AGs sue HUD, OneMain; talking about stone money with M&T CEO Jones
State attorneys general sued the Department of Housing and Urban Development as well as lender OneMain Financial; M&T Bank CEO Rene Jones talks about the changing nature of money, and the stone money of Yap.
Once, cash learned to ‘fly,’ today money needs to learn to ‘think’
More than a thousand years ago, merchants in imperial China revolutionized the concept of money by replacing metal coins with paper. A similarly transformative change — programmable money — is on the cusp of adoption today.
Grasshopper’s taking AI beyond the ‘confident intern’ stage
Peter Chapman, chief technology officer at Grasshopper Bank, initially saw AI as “the best intern that you could ever have.” Today the technology is taking on more advanced work at the bank.
7 Forbes 30 Under 30 fintech founders who landed in court
The criminal cases against these former 30 Under 30 honorees highlight the dangers of prioritizing hypergrowth narratives over proper due diligence.
Another out-of-state bank unveils its Florida strategy
WesBanco in Wheeling, West Virginia, has hired a team of lenders in South Florida. It plans eventually to open branches in a bid to grab a share of the region’s expanding deposit market.
Regions re-hires Jay Darnell for commercial cards and fintech
Darnell returns to Regions, after fintech-focused stints at Visa and a community bank acquired by Huntington, as the bank accelerates its branch opening plans.
M&T Bank takes a slow and steady approach to private credit
CEO René Jones told American Banker that private-credit firms are both partners and competitors. “Today, one of the concerns is that we don’t have that full transparency, as much as we would like. And so we have to be cautious as we move in that direction,” he said.
Democratic AGs sue HUD over fair housing guidance
A coalition of Democratic attorneys general, led by California and Illinois, have sued the Department of Housing and Urban Development over a guidance that they argue will scale back enforcement to strict federal standards and threaten state funding to enforce fair housing laws.
Regions accelerates plan to refresh its branch network
The Alabama-based regional bank plans to open 135 to 150 branches over the next five years, while closing the same number. Regions’ decision to accelerate its timeline by two years comes as large and regional banks try to capture more market share in the Southeast.
Why OpenAI’s checkout ‘pivot’ isn’t a retreat from AI payments
While it’s moving away from embedding transactions in ChatGPT to funneling purchases through third parties, analysts say the artificial intelligence lab’s shift doesn’t dilute the threat large language models pose to traditional card issuers.