Disruptors

With online retailers beginning to challenge the dominance of brick-and-mortar grocery stores, CRE loans to strip mails anchored by them look riskier.

When Apple or Google releases a new version of its operating system, banks are forced to respond by updating their mobile apps—running just to stay in place. Next month's release from Apple is especially challenging.

Readers react to USAA teaming up with Amazon’s Alexa, how a new Wells Fargo’s scandal could affect arbitration rules, a digital identity startup’s ambitions, and more.

New entrants don’t pose a disruptive threat to the incumbent cohort of issuers, credit card networks and acquirers primarily because the incumbents — Visa, Mastercard and First Data — are prepared to compete in all segments of the market.

Apologies to those yearning for escapism, but it is hard to escape turmoil — in financial services, in the economy and in civilization — in this year’s reading list. That said, these weighty topics promise to stimulate the mind: How AI will disrupt employment; dystopian imaginings and real-life histories of societal shifts; the necessity of collaboration; bitcoin’s path from obscurity to relevance; the need for leaders to make sacrifices; and more. Recommendations are courtesy of American Banker readers, editorial staff and BankThink contributors.