Q2 rebrands Cambr as Q2 BaaS as it moves on from its partnership with StoneCastle

Banking, Member Exclusive

Avant is building a bank from scratch as the OCC approves most charter applicants

• Avant CEO Al Goldstein says the lender expects to move the majority of its assets and operations into Avant Bank, N.A.
• Before Avant, 42 firms applied for OCC de novo charters since January 2025, and the agency approved 27.

Artificial Intelligence, Banking, Member Exclusive

AI is the car, and you are the driver: Bank of America’s approach to AI learning

• Bank of America trains its 200,000+ teammates on Gen AI by teaching accountability and critical thinking first, deliberately leaving out tokens and technical details.
• Role-specific learning pathways, AI conversation simulators, and a network of AI Champions give employees a safe place to build skills and ease concerns about their careers. Success is measured by whether learning changes how people work and shows up in business outcomes.

10-Q, Member Exclusive

U.S. Bank is building its small business relationship around the way owners run their businesses

• U.S. Bank is using its new Business Essentials cards to deepen its small business relationship, tying rewards to deposits while connecting spending with broader financial workflows.
• The overarching strategy is to pull more fragmented small business activity – from expenses and payroll to payments and cash flow – into one banking relationship.

Business of Fintech, Member Exclusive, Opinion

Fintech is in its empire-building era

• Fintechs are moving from unbundling banking to owning more of the infrastructure, licenses, and customer relationships around their businesses.
• Chime, Revolut, and Zilch show how scale is pushing fintechs into expansion, M&A, and greater control over everything surrounding their product suite.

Banking, Member Exclusive

The different ways banks are trying to own more of the financial relationship

• Banks are finding new ways to deepen customer relationships, from Live Oak’s industry specialization and Stifel’s relationship-led venture banking to SoFi’s stablecoin settlement and Nubank’s push into banking infrastructure.
• The common thread is owning a piece of the financial relationship that is hard to displace, whether through expertise, relationships, infrastructure, or regulated banking rails.