American Express

Bill to end the guidance intended to fight discriminatory lending now goes to the House; card company’s push to make more loans to customers pays dividends.

American Express Ventures has become an investor in the startup EverCompliant, which helps financial institutions root out e-commerce websites backed by terrorists and drug cartels that are laundering money through payments-processing networks.

The card activation process is relatively low-tech, but since its introduction nearly three decades ago it has been hugely effective in preventing credit cards from falling into the wrong hands. Among its pioneers was Ash Gupta, American Express’s president of global credit risk, who is retiring next month.

The move follows a shareholder proposal filed by Boston-based Arjuna Capital and is the first of its kind by a big U.S. bank.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dominated three of the top most read stories of last year, while Ripple upstart seized two. Other highlights included our annual Women in Banking package, the aftermath of the Equifax data breach and news of Amazon's possible banking plans.