GreenSky to Pay $10M to State AGs
GreenSky, a point‑of‑sale home‑improvement financing firm, agreed to pay $10 million to settle claims it deceived seniors and disabled consumers. The settlement, reached with attorneys general from Texas, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and the District of Columbia, includes a $575,000 civil penalty, $2.9 million in legal costs and $6.5 million for consumer restitution. GreenSky, which was owned by Goldman Sachs from 2022‑2024, denies wrongdoing but will be barred from similar conduct in the future. The company also faces a separate class‑action lawsuit in California over undisclosed fees.
LendingClub CEO Expects ‘Skinned Knees’ Amid Fintech Charter Rush
LendingClub is rebranding to Happen Bank to signal its evolution from a peer‑to‑peer lender into a fully chartered digital bank after the 2021 acquisition of Radius Bank. CEO Scott Sanborn notes a wave of fintechs—such as Affirm, PayPal, Revolut and...
Cyber Risk Management 101 for C-Suite Finance Executives
Financial services executives are urged to treat cyber risk as a core business threat, not just an IT issue. The article outlines a practical framework—identifying critical assets, assessing likelihood, applying controls, and continuous monitoring—aligned with NIST and ISO 27001 standards. It...
Trump Order Seeks to Open Fed Rails
President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the Federal Reserve to review how it grants fintechs access to the FedNow and FedACH payment rails. The order seeks to lower regulatory barriers while preserving safety and soundness, and mandates a...
Chime CEO: Pursuing Bank Charter Is ‘a when, Not If’
Chime’s CEO Chris Britt told investors that obtaining a U.S. bank charter is a matter of "when," not "if," as the fintech re‑evaluates timing amid a regulator‑friendly climate. The company currently serves about 10.2 million monthly active members and partners with...
New England Mutual Banks Partner but It’s ‘Not an Acquisition’
Mascoma Bank of New Hampshire and Androscoggin Bank of Maine announced they will merge their parent companies into a new mutual holding company called ClearNorth Financial. The partnership, not an acquisition, will combine roughly $4.8 billion in assets while each bank...
CFPB’s Vought Defends Terminating Citi Consent Order
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Acting Director Russ Vought announced the early termination of the 2023 consent order against Citibank, which had alleged surname‑based discrimination against Armenian‑American applicants. Citi completed its $24.5 million civil penalty, paid $1.37 million in redress to...
Dive Deposits: Affirm’s AI Stance Runs Counter to Trend
Affirm is doubling down on artificial intelligence while explicitly ruling out AI‑related layoffs, a stance that diverges from recent fintech cutbacks. CEO Max Levchin highlighted that the company’s revenue per employee is now comparable to Nvidia’s, underscoring AI’s profit impact....
Augustus Receives Conditional Charter Approval From OCC
Augustus, formerly known as Ivy, secured a conditional national‑bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The fintech plans to replace the legacy, paper‑heavy clearing system with an AI‑driven, code‑first model that settles in real time. Co‑founder...
Capital One Flags Debanking Fight in Quarterly Filing
Capital One disclosed in its latest SEC filing that it is responding to "fair access to banking" demands amid a pending civil lawsuit filed by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust. The filing echoes similar warnings from JPMorgan Chase and...
Citizens Targets Tweaks to Boost CX
Citizens Bank is exploring ways to boost value for retail customers as it targets the mass‑affluent segment. Head of consumer banking Matt Boss says the lender is making “small tweaks” daily, highlighted by a new mobile app with 400 screens,...
Collections Doesn’t Need More AI Tools. It Needs a Framework that Scales.
Banks are pouring record AI investment into collections, yet only about 10% see meaningful ROI from agentic AI. The industry’s reliance on point solutions creates fragmented integrations, compliance burdens, and pilot‑only deployments. Experts argue that a unified, AI‑native framework—standardizing data,...
‘New Citi’ Makes Its Pitch
Citi used its first full investor day in four years to showcase a transformed, technology‑driven business model while still operating under two Federal Reserve and OCC consent orders. CEO Jane Fraser highlighted a modernized tech stack, $5 billion of self‑funded investments...
Failed Oklahoma Bank’s Ex-CEO Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud
Former First National Bank of Lindsay CEO Danny Seibel pleaded guilty to bank fraud, facing up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine. Seibel approved loans to personal friends that never repaid and falsified records to mask overdrafts,...
How Chime Overcame Trust Challenges when Deploying Its AI Agent
Chime launched its AI copilot, Jade, to automate customer‑service interactions, confronting a core trust hurdle with users handling under $100,000 incomes. By allowing seamless handoffs to human agents, Jade now handles 70% of the company’s 2024 support contacts, boosting automated...