Green Dot strikes open banking deal with Plaid: Green Dot’s neobank customers gain data-sharing capabilities for 6,000-plus outside apps. Are its banking as a service (BaaS) clients next?

Competition from fintechs and consumer brands is compelling leading banks and technology providers to revise their strategies. These fintechs and brands are scaling and evolving rapidly on top of banking as a service (BaaS) and open banking infrastructure. We’ve spoken with executives at financial institutions, fintechs, and vendors about how to thrive in an ecosystem that’s reshaping financial services.

Jack Henry pitches unbundled core banking: Its new tech strategy will give banks flexibility in picking cloud-based core components.

The tie-up with a fintech specializing in identity verification and compliance solutions helps the open-banking provider stay ahead of regulatory action that will reduce its product differentiation.

Trading infrastructure fintech DriveWealth reached a $2.85 billion valuation thanks to the retail investing boom—and we expect it will add crypto trades and embed investing on nonfinancial platforms to drive future growth.

The White House called on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to move ahead with data-sharing regulation— its adoption would make it easier for neobanks to become customers’ primary banks and help all banking players partner with fintechs.

One hundred UK tech firms are valued above $1 billion, mostly thanks to its fintech sector—Watch for more unicorns to appear in the following sub sectors worldwide in the coming year.