Through extensible capabilities, community banks and credit unions can punch above their weight by connecting to modern third-party apps and features — without swapping out their core systems. Extensible systems allow FIs to integrate with third-party apps with minimal friction, enabling easier access to account data and quicker pivots, says Christian Ruppe, SVP and chief innovation officer at Fitzgerald, Georgia-based Colony Bank. It lets banks and credit unions add modern apps and features — including quicker onboarding and transaction capabilities — without changing their core systems. Yet despite these benefits, many are falling behind on adoption. According to Ryan Siebecker, a forward deployed engineer at Narmi, a banking software firm, the route to extensibility can be enabled through an internally built, custom middleware system, or institutions can work with outside vendors whose systems operate in parallel with core systems, including Narmi. Other FIs that work with vendors — including Colony Bank and Grasshopper Bank — say using outside partners with capabilities that stand on top of existing core systems allow them to maintain lean internal operations without sacrificing the quality of the integrations. Luther Liang, SVP of product at Grasshopper Bank, told that by working with a vendor, the bank didn’t have to hire additional staff to manage software integrations enabled by extensibility. Colony Bank is starting to see results two years since it began its extensibility rollout. It’s enabled three major use cases: a modern account opening solution; an app that improves call center efficiency by allowing call center reps to co-browse with customers; and a client data visualization tool. Colony’s core provider “charges us per integration, and so now we’re not having to pay per integration — we have one integration, and we pay for that,” says Ruppe. “If you do it right, you can make it make sense immediately, but the long term is where you really win.” While Colony Bank might not be looking to compete with the top megabanks, “we know our communities better than they do…we can then provide technology that is specific to those customers,” he says.
J.D. Power Direct Banking Satisfaction Study: Charles Schwab ranks highest and AMEX is second among both checking and savings providers, Ally ranks third in checking, Marcus-Goldman Sachs is third in savings
According to the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Direct Banking Satisfaction Study, overall customer satisfaction with direct bank checking accounts is 692 (on a 1,000-point scale), which is 24 points higher than the average regional bank and 35 points higher than national banks. Savings account satisfaction is even higher (705), which is 89 points higher than regional banks and 98 points higher than national banks. Charles Schwab Bank ranks highest in overall satisfaction among checking providers with a score of 740, marking the seventh consecutive year of being top ranked in the study. American Express (711) ranks second and Ally (694) ranks third. Charles Schwab Bank ranks highest in overall satisfaction among savings providers with a score of 748. American Express (737) ranks second and Marcus by Goldman Sachs (735) ranks third. Following are some key findings of the 2025 study:
- Checking satisfaction increases while savings satisfaction declines: The overall customer satisfaction score for direct bank checking accounts is 692, up 4 points from 2024. Overall satisfaction for direct bank savings accounts is 705, down 5 points from 2024. Both scores are still far higher than the average overall satisfaction scores for midsize banks, regional banks, national banks and neobanks.
- Support during challenging times drives satisfaction scores: The key performance indicator of “bank completely supports me during challenging times,” is responsible for a 73-point rise in checking account satisfaction and an 84-point rise in savings account satisfaction when banks hit the mark. When direct banks achieve these gains, customers reward the banks with higher utilization of direct deposit, higher investment account and credit card ownership, and a lower likelihood of moving deposits to another financial institution.
- Bank support resonating with younger customers: Members of Gen Z1 and Gen Y have the highest year-over-year increase in perceived level of direct bank support. Boomers believe their overall level of direct bank support has declined year over year.
Bank of America seeks to “bring the bank” to merchant services customers, integrating lending services and payments tied to back-office functions and virtual cards
The lines between software vendors, payment processors and merchant services are blurring, leading to changing buying decisions for merchants who are asking for more from their payment providers. Merchants, particularly small and mid-sized enterprises, are looking for service providers to help them run every aspect of their business, including automated employee time tracking, data management, streamlined B2B payments and marketing tools, going beyond transaction services. The merchants themselves are expanding their own business models, which typically involve selling direct to consumers. In doing so, they are leveraging the power of their brand for digital direct-to-consumer experiences, which require the use of payment facilitation or marketplace models. While these models reduce storefront overhead, they drive a new need in helping contend regulatory changes, security concerns and meeting the demands of burgeoning populations of end customers. Value-added services enable those merchants to garner repeat business, to collect data as consumers buy goods and services online — and merchants can offer loyalty and rewards as well as individualized engagement with consumers. Bank of America, for its own part, has conducted its own surveys of small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), to ask what merchant services meant to those clients. The customers said they wanted offerings from service providers that help them run every aspect of their business. “They’re looking to these merchant processors and acquirers to provide more than just a transaction service,” Bank of America Merchant Solutions Head Wally Mlynarski said. These growing companies want automated employee time tracking, data management to optimize inventory and streamlined B2B payments — along with marketing tools to enhance their presence across digital and mobile channels. For Bank of America, Mlynarski said, “We don’t stop at integrating into the merchant’s business — we want to integrate into the financial lives of the merchants well. We try to bring the bank to our customers and operate in their territory,” integrating, for example, lending services so that capital is available as needed, with payments tied to back-office functions so that merchants can pay their suppliers efficiently with virtual cards. Bank of America, Mlynarski said, has used a partnership approach to deliver those value-added service to merchant clients in the retail, restaurant and healthcare verticals, among others. “Building those partnerships fill any gaps we might have,” he said, and underpin long-term sustainable growth. In some cases, he said, client firms are seeking data and analytics functions from those clients, with integrations into enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Healthcare is a key example here, where back-office money movement needs to break free from paper-based communications and paper checks. Bank of America, he said, has been working to digitize those operations. Looking ahead, no matter whether they are consumer-facing or emanating from the back office, payments themselves should be intuitive and experiential, said Mlynarski, adding that transactions “should be in the background and automatic,” and they soon will be with artificial intelligence (AI) and biometrics.
Morgan Stanley to add crypto trading on E*Trade, the most direct move so far by a major US bank to let retail users buy and sell digital assets
Morgan Stanley is preparing to offer cryptocurrency trading on its E*Trade platform. This would be the most direct move so far by a major US bank to let retail users buy and sell digital assets. The change means state member banks no longer need to notify the Fed in advance of planned or current crypto-asset activities. These will now be reviewed through the standard supervisory process. The bank is exploring partnerships with crypto-native firms to support the technical side of the trading system. Morgan Stanley already offers some crypto-related products, such as ETFs, options, and futures. These are aimed at wealthier clients. The new plan would expand access to a broader group of users. If Morgan Stanley proceeds, it could increase pressure on crypto-focused platforms like Coinbase and Kraken. These firms currently serve a large share of the retail market. Meanwhile, E*Trade is introducing a new platform called “Power ETrade Pro” aimed at active traders. Currently in its pilot phase, the platform is scheduled for a full launch in June. The new platform will compete with services like Charles Schwab’s Thinkorswim and Robinhood’s Legend, offering customization of up to 120 tools across six screens. It will also include a separate desktop client in addition to existing web and mobile options.
Block 1Q 2025 reports growing engagement on Cash App with gross profit per monthly transacting active of $81, up 9% year over year; wants to make its agentic AI system for internal initiatives as the single, universal interface to help automate workflows and decision-making at scale
Block revised its full-year gross profit guidance to $9.96 billion, representing 12% year-over-year growth — a more conservative forecast reflecting macro headwinds and decelerated growth in Cash App’s core metrics. And with gross profit growing just 9% year over year, the company is now doubling down on three fronts: intelligent automation, credit accessibility, and brand reinvention. Perhaps the boldest claim in Block’s Q1 update revolves around its internal AI initiative: “goose.” Described as an “agentic system,” goose aims to be the universal interface for Block’s employees — and eventually its customers. The goal: to automate workflows and decision-making at scale. “Our first goal is to make goose our single interface for all of our functions,” explained Dorsey, noting that goose is already improving engineering productivity by 30%, and adding that the system will ultimately expand to every role in the company. “By the end of this year, goose will act as a personal CFO for consumers and a COO for sellers,” CEO Jack Dorsey said. Cash App Borrow — Block’s small-dollar, short-duration loan product — is emerging as a keystone of its monetization strategy. After receiving FDIC approval to issue consumer loans nationwide via Square Financial Services, the company is accelerating rollout across its Cash App user base. More than half of all Borrow loans are used within the Cash App ecosystem, the company reported, suggesting strong network lock-in. Notably, users who deposit their paycheck into Cash App are 2.5 times more likely to accept a Borrow offer than card-only users, and 13 times more likely than users with neither a Cash App Card nor direct deposit. This integrated financial model — what Block calls its “bank our base” strategy — aims to deepen engagement by turning casual users into multiproduct customers. Borrow is central to that transformation.
- Delivered year-over-year gross profit growth of 9% as we continue to launch new products across Square and Cash App to accelerate our growth at scale
- Growing engagement on Cash App with gross profit per monthly transacting active of $81 in Q1 on an annualized basis, up 9% year over year
Fifth Third’s NLU-chatbot Jeanie does not hallucinate as it is built on traditional AI; can pick up 87% of customer intents and is evolving to support agentic AI, task automation and multilingual support
Fifth Third is among the traditional banks leveraging AI via its chatbot, Jeanie, to manage customer inquiries and enhance service quality and satisfaction. The solution aimed to improve the customer service experience, but also to support agents, who could manage multiple chat conversations at once — something that was not possible with one-on-one phone calls. They zeroed in on enhancing the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) model. According to Michelle Grimm, Senior Director, Conversational AI at Fifth Third, Jeanie initially picked up on just 20% of customer intents correctly. By reconfiguring the model and developing a proprietary model, they pushed that figure up to about 87%. The bank uses a traditional NLU built on traditional topic modeling to figure out what the customer wants to do. When a customer types in their request, the NLU identifies the intent behind it, classifies the action the customer wants to take, and the bank then verifies that understanding. Since Jeanie runs on traditional AI, it avoids the risk of hallucinations or generating false information — a common concern with generative AI systems. Fifth Third is focused on evolving Jeanie in several key areas, including: Agentic AI: Incorporating agentic AI to strengthen customer service is one of the future paths under consideration. Task Automation: Moving Jeanie beyond simply guiding users through self-service options to actually completing tasks for them. Multilingual Support: The bank aims to open the door to more inclusive service by offering help in additional languages. Fifth Third has enhanced its Voice of the Customer (VoC) program by transitioning from traditional customer surveys to advanced speech analytics. The bank tapped into a third-party analytics tool, NICE Nexidia Analytics and Enlighten AI, enabling the analysis of every customer call across various departments, including consumer banking, collections, and commercial services. The VoC program provides customer behavior insights → the bank identifies service gaps Jeanie can fill → it improves Jeanie’s use and visibility based on that feedback. Insights from the VoC program also enable the bank to identify common customer needs and redirect inquiries that can be addressed digitally. The bank uses post-interaction surveys to learn whether customers’ problems were effectively addressed after speaking with an agent. The bank also analyzes customers’ first utterances when engaging with Jeanie, especially when new products or features are released. “This helps us identify if we need to enhance capabilities related to those new offerings,” says Grimm. Beyond surveys, the Conversational AI team stays in sync with the product and customer experience teams, gathering feedback directly from frontline agents on what could be improved.
U.S. Bank’s head of Avvance expects increased need and demand for tokenization — both for identity management and for payments
Rob Seidman, head of U.S. Bank’s Avvance, told PYMNTS that FinTechs, payments processors and banks need to surface the right value-added tools at the right time to help enterprise clients grow, and so they have to evolve right alongside those clients. The bank’s acquiring business is growing, he told PYMNTS, with a nod to his own firm, and global expansion of clients’ operations demands products geared toward foreign currency management. The rise of fraud in card-not-present transactions demands robust fraud defenses and identity management as digital wallets gain wider embrace. That’s especially true of Avvance, the point-of-sale lending solution offered by U.S. Bank, embedded into checkout flows, where the need for speedy transactions must be balanced against the need for security. U.S. Bank, noted Seidman, has partnered with a variety of providers in its acquiring suite, along with the point-of-sale lending solution and other offerings that move beyond the demand deposit account (DDA). He likened the model to an “omnipresent solution” that exists through offerings that may or may not be owned by the bank. Looking ahead, Seidman said there will be increased need and demand for tokenization — both for identity management and for payments. Wallets will continue to transform commerce, as stored wallets can house those identities as holders use them in their day-to-day lives as consumers or even in B2B scenarios. Borderless commerce, he said, has spurred the need for simplicity in currency management. “When you have volatility in the values of currencies,” he said, “it adds to what is ‘necessary’ to carry out successful cross-border payments and an overall payment strategy.” Crypto is emerging as a viable option over the longer term, but no matter the payment method chosen, “it’s the right time to have the best set of rails and the most choice” to facilitate different consumer and commercial use cases — which then boosts the efficiency of transactions for small businesses and even individual remittances.
VC Lightspeed changes its regulatory status to a RIA, to enable investing more capital into assets beyond direct startup equity including public and secondary shares, as well as cryptocurrencies
Lightspeed Venture Partners, has changed its regulatory status to broaden its range of investments — following similar moves by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst as they shift away from the traditional VC playbook. Lightspeed has completed the process of becoming a registered investment advisor (RIA), according to a US SEC filing. The move is the culmination of a lengthy regulatory process and gives the firm freedom to invest more capital into assets beyond direct startup equity. It’s also a signal that most of the country’s biggest VCs now have ambitions to expand beyond only investing in startups. Lightspeed is one of the last major venture firms to change its regulatory status, as VCs seek to invest in a wider array of assets, including public and secondary shares, as well as cryptocurrencies. Without the RIA designation, VC firms may only allocate up to 20% of their capital to holdings outside traditional startup equity. Lightspeed, which manages $31 billion in assets, is expected to launch new funds totaling $7 billion and has been expanding its investments in areas such as secondary deals and artificial intelligence.
Survey reveals consumers are in favor of companies taking progressive stances; 53% of Americans want companies to support DEI initiatives, while only 14% want them to oppose it; 78% Gen Z most likely to want CEOs to defend DEI, while 56% of Baby Boomers agree
A new survey from global insights firm Globescan revealed that 53% of Americans want companies to support DEI initiatives, while only 14% want them to oppose it. The survey found that even among Republican voters, 38% are in favor of corporate DEI initiatives, while 19% are opposed. On questions of sustainability, consumers are also in favor of companies taking progressive stances. 65% said corporations should support government action on protecting fresh water, and 52% said government action on climate change should be supported. Only 10% and 11%, respectively, said that companies should oppose these issues. Protecting democracy (48%), rights of the LGBTQ+ community (38%), and a woman’s right to choose (34%) are also issues where many consumers believe companies should speak out in support of. However, for the latter two, many believe companies should stay neutral or quiet, at 32% and 39% respectively. Overall, consumers say that CEOs specifically should be expected to speak out to defend social causes. 67% said that chief executives should speak out on the importance of DEI progress, while 71% say it is important for CEOs to address climate change. Across demographic groups, Americans feel strongly about this. Gen Z (78%) are most likely to want CEOs to defend DEI, while 56% of Baby Boomers and older agree. Nearly half (49%) of those surveyed report buying an environmentally-friendly product in the last month, compared to 43% in July 2024. Only 15% of those surveyed said they are “uninterested” in sustainable purchases. Price is the leading obstacle for those looking to buy sustainably, as 55% said they would have liked to buy an eco-friendly product, but didn’t because it was too expensive.
Collibra survey reveals 86% of respondents cite protecting data privacy as a top concern with 76% citing ROI on data privacy and AI initiatives
Collibra survey found that 86% of respondents cite protecting data privacy as a top concern with 76% of respondents citing ROI on data privacy and AI initiatives across their organization. Notably, eight in 10 decision makers also said that data ownership has changed over the last year with the emergence of AI (85%). Despite concerns around data privacy and ROI, the survey indicates a strong overall momentum towards AI adoption, with 86% of organizations planning to proceed with their AI initiatives. However, this enthusiasm varies by company size. While nearly all large companies (96%) intend to forge ahead with their AI plans despite the evolving landscape, smaller (78%) and medium-sized (79%) organizations are exhibiting a more measured approach. On a positive note, the new survey also found that nearly nine in 10 decision-makers say that they have a lot or a great deal of trust in their own companies’ approach [88%] to shaping the future of AI , with three quarters [75%] agreeing that their company prioritizes AI training and upskilling, with decision-makers at large companies (1000+ employees) more likely than those at small companies (1-99 employees) to agree (87% vs. 55%).