Financial Services

CFPB eyes ‘junk fees’ from banks: The regulator issued a public-comment request for a slew of fees it says people only encounter after initially selecting products and services. The scrutiny may accelerate the trend away from them.

TrueLayer’s European moves point to rising competition: The UK-based open-banking provider said it’s expanding into five new markets in Europe.

Funding in Latin America and Asia, where there’s pent-up demand from underserved customers, reached record highs.

On the company’s earnings call, CEO Steve Squeri added color to the issuer’s performance and addressed popular trends like BNPL and cryptos.

Al Rajhi Bank plans Malaysian digital arm with cloud-based help: The Saudi Arabia-based bank is teaming up with core-banking company Thought Machine to power its upcoming digital unit in a country where the space has drawn strong interest.

Its fintech is out of stealth mode and is making acquisitions to build a neobank that will call itself as ONE. Its scaling potential makes it a threat to US banking players.

Simplifying account opening for SMBs: Fintech MANTL’s fully digital account-opening product for banks to use with small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) may reduce application abandonments.

Pension scheme assets like the USS’ $6.4 billion can play a critical role in financing the fight against climate change—but reconciling inconsistent ESG data remains a challenge for fund managers.

The acquisition could give Zip a path into long-term financing and a user base boost as competition mounts and regulation looms.

UK-based Monese’s in-house Credit Builder product lets customers develop credit histories through savings deposits. The data could also grow its lending.

US community banks hold onto their branches: A survey finds that local banking players are eschewing their larger competitors’ branch-axing strategies. Instead, they’re adding complex services for which consumers prefer in-person support.

Plaid seeks to avoid repeat of $58M data-gathering lawsuit: After settling litigation claiming it gathered more user data than necessary, the open-banking provider will offer greater transparency to US users on its data management practices.