Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced the public launch of Kraken VIP, a service akin to a private crypto bank for investors with a $10 million average balance or $80 million in annual trading volume. Crypto is tapping the ultra-luxury market with benefits and exclusivity that have been the domain of private banks and high-end credit cards. This new frontier for crypto should incite traditional financial providers to evolve their UHNW offerings to meet rising experiential expectations.
The share of rental applicants who are more than 90 days delinquent on student loans increased from 15% in January 2025 to 32% in May, according to a just-released TransUnion report. Credit score data reflects these delinquencies, with lower-scoring consumers faring the worst. Consumers’ struggles with student loan repayments highlight a problem for financial institutions (FIs) on the hook for private-loan defaults. And as consumers delay expensive financial decisions like buying a house in favor of reducing student loan debt, demand for credit like mortgages and auto loans will suffer.
Canada’s big banks exceeded expectations for the 2025 fiscal year as capital markets and wealth management carried results. But economic uncertainty loomed over results. Adverse trade policy and a cooling labor market were hot topics, and there are risks of consumer credit stress. Threats to Canada’s economic wellbeing abound, which will trickle down to banks’ businesses. In the meantime, restructuring will likely distract management teams, slowing response to changing business conditions.
Most people who get their health coverage through the ACA marketplace anticipate being unable to afford rising premiums if enhanced tax credits lapse, with many expecting they’ll have to forgo insurance, per a just-released KFF survey. Unaffordable insurance—or no coverage at all—will force people into difficult choices, such as delaying care and treatment or cutting other essentials to pay for healthcare. With coverage gaps possible as soon as next month, insurers will need to help members navigate changing eligibility and costs to avoid losing them.
PNC’s redesigned app, launching in H1 2026, will include “incremental functionality.” The bank hinted at digital direct deposit switching and instant debit card issuance. The new app is a culmination of several years’ worth of work replatforming digital banking. PNC’s aggressive strategy for branch banking includes deploying $2 billion on more than 300 new or renovated branches through 2030 and hiring 2,000 people to support them. When executed well, branch investments should pay off with increased brand awareness and more sales across channels.
Bank of America (BofA) is recommending that clients allocate up to 4% of their portfolios to crypto, a more crypto-forward stance than previously and one that clicks with demographic trends. What seems like a minor change to investment policies further legitimizes crypto as a mainstream asset and will have a long-term positive impact for BofA. Other banks should be prepared to do the same: Crypto as an investment is no longer niche, and institutions that don’t adapt will be left behind.
Canada’s Laurentian Bank agreed to break apart and sell itself after years of lackluster performance. National Bank of Canada will buy Laurentian’s consumer and small business banking portfolios at book value. Laurentian struggled to differentiate itself favorably. And its lack of scale means it hasn’t had the resources to modernize its infrastructure and operations or grow beyond its home market of Quebec. With the breakup of banks, the list of large financial institutions in Canada is shrinking, and the largest are only getting bigger.
From Q1 to Q2 2025, search share of voice (SOV) declined steeply for some banking sites. For example, Wells Fargo fell from 3.83% to 1.21% and NerdWallet from 3.66% to 1.68%. At the same time, StudentAid.gov entered the top five and ConsumerFinance.gov entered the top 10. Since FIs can’t control events that drive people’s need for information, they should be prepared to offer education and advice tailored to their customers’ needs and anticipate other resources to which they should direct customers. If an FI is only a place to buy and administer financial products and services, it can’t be positioned as a trusted advisor.
In 2025, 82% of US consumers did not increase their emergency savings, including 33% whose emergency savings decreased and 18% who had none to begin with. Financial institutions (FIs) are in a strong position to help consumers save. When they do so successfully, they can enhance customer loyalty and help them stay on firmer financial ground, making them high-quality customers for non-depository banking products and services.
Green Dot’s fintech business and licensed bank are being separated and acquired—the former by a private equity firm and the latter by an $839 million commercial bank. The total value of the deal is estimated to be between $825 million and $1.1 billion. B2B services, including banking as a service, has been Green Dot’s growth engine. Carving off the noncore, lower-margin, declining part of the business will allow the company to focus on where it has the greatest growth opportunities. A bank can best leverage its expertise and infrastructure to operate the businesses that Green Dot has struggled with.
SitusAMC—a vendor to banks including JPMorgan Chase, Citi, and Morgan Stanley—had a data breach whose scope and severity it’s still investigating. The compromised data was related to residential mortgages and may include Social Security numbers and other personally identifiable information. Even the best-prepared financial services companies need to be ready to respond to data breaches. Vague assurances before or after a breach suggest bankers aren’t paying attention to necessary details. They must be explicit and transparent about safeguards and breach remediation.
Revolut sold shares that valued the company at $75 billion. The amount raised was unclear, but the buyers included several venture firms and asset management firms that commonly invest in private shares. Revolut’s global success has been remarkable. But it may just crowd the graveyard of foreign neobanks that have tested the US waters. N26 quit in 2022 after two years. When Bunq tried in 2023, it gave up after getting tied up in regulatory reviews. Monzo still operates in the US but gave up hope of getting a banking license. Incumbents have a lot to fear, but Revolut doesn’t have a slam dunk.
Canada published the draft of its Stablecoin Act as part of its Budget 2025 Implementation Act. It applies to stablecoins issued by entities that are not prudentially regulated. For Canadian banks and fintechs, the impending legislation signals that stablecoins are normalizing everywhere as a regulated alternative to cash as a store of value and for electronic payments. The use cases are particularly interesting for Canadian financial institutions and stablecoin issuers who will use stablecoins to move money across the US border.
A new study shows that while commerce media enthusiasm is high, actual readiness is far lower. Nearly half of respondents believe they are operationalized, yet only 13% qualify as advanced across leadership, technology, and measurement. Most fall into nascent or emerging categories, limited by siloed workflows, manual creative processes, and fragmented data systems that prevent closed-loop attribution. Advertisers seeking accountable, performance-driven programs may be surprised by how few networks can truly support scaled, automated operations. The findings highlight a widening gap between ambition and capability—and the need for unified data, automation, and clearer measurement.
Auto insurance customers are trying to manage premium costs by raising deductibles (26% of those customers had deductibles of $1,000 or more), foregoing rental car insurance or collision coverage, and avoiding filing claims. The claims experience is becoming a differentiator as policyholders grapple with rising costs. Insurers that deliver on high claims satisfaction may better be able to retain customers. But as claim values climb, insurers will struggle to balance pricing discipline with strategic spending on technology and process improvements.
Insurance earnings season brought results from public insurtechs, revealing these tech-focused insurers have reached meaningful scale. Insurtechs are making progress on the fundamentals of the insurance business—disciplined underwriting, careful expense management, and often improved unit economics. They haven’t unseated incumbents and aren't likely to. But evolving business models, new partnerships, and glimmers of profitability suggest these companies have staying power.
Chubb has introduced AI-driven analytics and product matching features within its Chubb Studio platform, which lets partners embed Chubb insurance in their digital experiences. It’s another move that reinforces the incumbent insurer’s position as a key player in the space. Traditional sales channels will inevitably decline as Gen Zers and young millennials become a larger share of insurance buyers. Insurers need to rethink their distribution strategy and technology infrastructure or risk losing access to digitally native customers who expect seamless, integrated purchasing experiences.
Wealthfront, a roboadvisory wealth tech, announced Wealthfront Home Lending, a mortgage platform for purchase loans and refinancing. It will offer fixed- and adjustable-rate conventional and jumbo loans up to $5 million. Wealthfront Home Lending will for now be an incremental revenue source. But it threatens banks’ mortgage business by accelerating growth in digital mortgage companies. Online lenders like Rocket Mortgage already compete in the space on customer convenience, digital experience, and mortgage rates. Banks will struggle to catch up.
Block plans to offer savings and investing products for children 6 to 12 alongside savings tools for parents of even younger children. It introduced a banking product in 2021 for teens. And this fall it announced a high-yield savings product for the same demographic. Chase and Capital One offer products for kids, but banks overall do not. Young consumers are smartphone- and app-native and see any interaction with a bank in that context. The hook for a financial services company is now an experience—not a product.
Scott Simpson, the president of America’s Credit Unions, called a recent ABA survey "deliberately deceptive" and said it casts credit unions unfairly. The study’s conclusions play a tiny part in an endless war over credit unions’ tax-exempt status and federal disclosure requirements. The ABA survey was designed to prove a point, but the threat to the banking industry is real: Credit unions may compete more effectively with banks because of a lower regulatory and tax burden than banks. The fight will intensify as credit unions get bigger.