The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is in the late stages of formulating the first nationwide rules for payday lending and industry observers have begun speculating on what changes will be made. The CFPB is barred by the Dodd-Frank Act from setting a nationwide interest-rate cap, but the bureau is likely to set a regulatory floor below which the states may not fall. The CFPB has not signaled whether the new rules will include ability-to-pay standards or whether they will include restrictions on requesting access to customers' bank accounts. The rulemaking process will continue for at... Read more

Teri Williams, President & COO of OneUnited Bank stopped by Orlando Florida's Captain and Company Morning Radio Show to discuss the new Unity Visa Card, a program designed to help people build healthy credit: "That’s something important for people to not get upset or in the mindset that, you know, 'I have bad credit. I’m a bad person.' Absolutely not. What has happened, usually, is that something has happened in your life that in some cases you don’t even have control over. And so you have been doing fine, but you hit a bump in the road... [The Unity Visa] is a credit... Read more

Big bank executives are opening experimental branches which use technology to provide more services in less space than a traditional branch. The pilot programs engineered by Bank of America and Citigroup resemble Apple stores, with employees holding tablets and tending to customers. JPMorgan found its customers headed to branches for advice rather than to simply go to the tellers. So their experimental branches focus on new express banking kiosks – A.T.M.s, with additional functionality and large flat screens – rather than the teller line. JPMorgan is also testing new... Read more

Assertions that virtual payments and currencies are on the verge of displacing greenbacks may be premature. More greenbacks are now in circulation than at any time in recent history. Since January 2006, the amount of United States currency in circulation rose about 64 percent, to $1.2 trillion. But at the same time, cash transactions are declining as consumers rely more on debit and credit cards, suggesting that demand for dollars may be driven by hoarders rather than spenders. Americans are also writing half as many checks as they did a decade ago. The... Read more

The Delta Bridge Project, an initiative backed by Southern Bancorp which coordinates community and economic development efforts in three Arkansas and Mississippi counties, recently unveiled new tourist-friendly way-finding signs in Helena, Ark. The signs are part of Civil War Helena, a tourism promotion which highlights Helena’s numerous Civil War attractions. Southern Bancorp and its partners have invested heavily in Phillips County’s tourism industry in order to diversify the economy and create new economic opportunities in the region. “Civil War Helena is expected to attract over 60,000... Read more

When Carlos Schulte contributed $300 on Kickstarter to Oculus VR, a small but ambitious virtual reality gaming startup, he never expected it to sell out to Facebook for $2 billion. The $300 contribution bought him an early version of the company's gaming platform, but no equity in the company. The passionate online response against the Facebook purchase illustrates how the ethos of crowdfunding can clash with the corporate world. Some contributors fear the purchase will steer the company away from the gamer-friendly vision they had contributed to.... Read more

Increasing numbers of people are finding themselves so close to the financial brink that they must borrow against future wages just to cover the costs of everyday life. Over the past half century, the purchasing power of wages have fallen while access to credit has risen, causing credit to replace wages for an increasing number of purchases. Meanwhile, personal savings have fallen steadily from their 1970's peak. The effect of this dependence on credit is that the average American has very little financial leeway when something unpredictable happens or just needs to scrape together enough... Read more

Bronx-based Spring Bank seems like a perfect candidate for New York State's Banking Development District program, an initiative that encourages banks to put branches in low-income neighborhoods that have none. Spring Bank, recently certified as a CDFI, offers customers financial literacy courses and products like checking accounts with no fees or minimum balance requirements. But two years ago, when the bank expanded into Harlem, its application to participate went nowhere. The reason: the program was being revised and New York's Department of Financial Services was not considering new... Read more

Sixteen of the 20 largest U.S. cities are experiencing growth rates faster than their surrounding suburbs, reversing a trend towards suburban sprawl that has held since the '20s. Retiring baby boomers and millenials alike are relocating to the city in search of culture, walkability and faster-paced lifestyles. For banks, this transition is contemporaneous with hard economic times. The proclivity of younger city dwellers toward online banking has dovetailed nicely with many banks' impulse toward downsizing branches to cut costs. But regulators worry the next lending bubble could appear in... Read more