Barclays is joining the central bank digital currency fray by organizing a hackathon aimed at developing code for retail CBDCs for consumers and wholesale CBDCs for interbank transactions. Meanwhile, Varo Bank joined a growing list of fintechs that have fallen on harder times.
Scroll though to see what you might have missed this week in banking, payments, credit unions and more.
Isabel Casillas Guzman, administrator of the Small Business Administration, wants the agency to get involved in direct lending, a practice that was discontinued during the Clinton administration. Congress has not embraced the idea, to put it mildly.
GLS had already stopped issuing first-use plastic as of 2018, but it wasn't enough for the eco-minded German bank. Fake plastic still looks and feels like plastic.
The top five banks and thrifts have combined deposits of more than $7.5 trillion.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is arguing that Colorado has the right to establish an interest rate cap that all state-chartered banks must follow. Three industry groups are suing the state in an effort to stop its attempted crackdown.
The Philadelphia-based bank's parent company, Republic First Bancshares, had been roiled by a yearslong proxy battle involving activist investors groups and its former CEO.
The Wyoming-based digital asset bank filed paperwork to challenge last month's district court ruling, which affirmed the Federal Reserve's view about its discretion over master account applications.
