Matt Turner, an industry-hopping head of digital, sees the future of banking as hyper-personalized services embedded in customers’ daily lives.

Currencycloud provides API-based foreign exchange banking and payments services and can help Visa strengthen its position in the cross-border payments market.

The incumbent banking giant is teaming up with Simply Business to offer small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) access to insurance coverage. Banks are using partners to provide services that boost customer engagement.

Lydia teamed up with Cashbee to offer savings accounts next to its payments platform and retail banking services as it bets on cross-selling opportunities.

Judges toss New York’s fintech charter challenge: An appeals court panel overturned a ruling that let the state’s Department of Financial Services challenge the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s special-purpose charter—a credential that would permit tech giants to offer banking services.

U.S. Bank tests hybrid branches to complement digital channels: With digital banking becoming dominant, the bank’s new branches eschew routine banking services and instead dedicate employees to assisting with complex products.

Service providers are using their existing relationships with small businesses to move into financial services, taking on financial institutions by offering solutions like lending and bank accounts that are powered by partnerships, digital banking developments, and even in-house banks.

Telehealth wasn’t the only healthcare service to benefit from pandemic-induced lockdowns and restrictions in 2020. Retail health clinics—health centers located in retail stores—have grown in popularity as a convenient way to access simple health services.

The growth of investment robo-advisors—algorithm-based account services—spiked last year across the US, the UK, and Canada as investors, especially those belonging to younger populations, took advantage of investment opportunities during the pandemic. For instance, independent robo-advisors Wealthfront and Betterment both reported double-digit increases in account openings during the pandemic.

The pandemic is pushing consumers into digital banking channels, upping pressure on small and midsized banks to deliver value-added services and digital user experiences. They have to find ways of doing so on limited tech budgets to stay competitive.

Consumers’ growing willingness to get their financial services from non-FI providers is spurring consumer brands to embed financial elements in their products and services. But this new form of finance will mean dramatic changes for incumbent and startup FIs.

The news: Australian neobank “Alex” has gone live on Temenos’ software as a service (SaaS) Temenos Banking Cloud. Earlier this month, Alex received its Restricted-Authorized Deposit-Taking Institution (RADI) license from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

It could fill the gap created in Australia’s consumer-side neobanking landscape when 86 400 and Xinja exited and Volt opted to focus on the banking as a service (BaaS) space. On the SMB side, Square could pose a threat to Judo Bank, which closed on a new funding round in June.

The fall of Xinja wasn’t the only sign of shrinkage in Australia’s consumer neobanking space. 86 400 exited by selling itself to National Australian Bank (NAB), while Volt has moved its focus toward banking as a service (BaaS). The big takeaway: APRA’s stricter criteria will likely deter many neobanks from opening in Australia.