Elon Musk grabbed headlines this month as his effort to streamline the government reached the Treasury Department’s systems and data. Other news included Zelle restrictions, crypto debanking and a dearth of cybersecurity professionals. 

Click here to catch up on what the top headlines were in January.

Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg

JPMorgan Chase plans Zelle restrictions due to scam risk

Article by Joey Pizzolato

JPMorgan Chase is taking new steps to curb payments made to scammers on peer-to-peer payments platform Zelle.

Starting March 23, the $4 trillion-asset bank will begin asking for additional information on payments it believes originated through contact on social media platforms and could decline or block those payments, according to updates to its terms and conditions.

“Zelle is designed for sending money to others you know and trust, not for buying things on social media,” a JPMorgan Chase spokesperson told American Banker in an email, adding the bank wants to help its customers protect themselves from scams that originate on social media platforms.

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Musk’s team can access Treasury systems. What could go wrong?

Article by Penny Crosman

Elon Musk and a team of civilians have obtained direct access to the Treasury Department’s systems and data, according to a complaint filed by government employees. 

Representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency, which Musk leads as a “special government employee,” tried for weeks to access the Treasury payments systems and were rebuffed by David Lebryk, the highest-ranking career official. When Scott Bessent became Treasury secretary in late January, he gave DOGE staff full access to the federal payment system, the complaint stated. 

The security implications for the government, for American citizens and for banks are vast. 

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Bank customers still complain about crypto debanking

Article by Emma Kinery

When Ken Chapman, principal at T10 Ventures, applied to open a new account with USAA earlier this month, he knew the potential flags his crypto dealings might raise. He called USAA directly, instead of applying online, so he could explain his crypto investments.

Over the phone, Chapman told the USAA representative that while he would be frequently transacting with Coinbase, all of the money exchanged would be in U.S. dollars; there would not be any cryptocurrencies flowing in and out of the account directly.

“They were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up,” Chapman said. “The representative went away and [when he returned] he said, ‘I went and talked with two senior people and you can’t have crypto coming from Coinbase into your account.'” 

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Could Trump build lasting bridges between crypto and banks?

Article by Frank Gargano

Cryptocurrency has been enjoying its time in the spotlight, as lawmakers empowered by the pro-crypto Trump administration work to build a more welcoming environment for digital-asset players to access financial services. But legislators across the aisle remain conflicted on whether the regulators or the institutions themselves are to blame for past friction.

The term debanking has been thrown around a lot in recent days, as Senate Banking Committee members seek out the root causes and culprits behind the rising tide of crypto firms losing access to banking services — or having difficulty getting access to begin with.

During a hearing this month, Republican officials held that regulators with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other agencies were responsible for stifling bank activity in the digital-asset arena. Bank advocates say recent executive appointments have opened the door to providing clarity on just how involved institutions can be with crypto.

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Goldman Sachs, Capital One prep for self-driving AI agents

Article by Penny Crosman

Several new large language model-based AI agents were recently introduced, with implications for the financial industry.

OpenAI launched Operator, an AI agent that can order groceries and book flights. Google released Gemini 2.0, which can “understand complex scenarios, plan multiple steps ahead and take actions on behalf of users,” according to the company. Oracle announced AI agent services that automate business processes. Auquan deployed AI agents at private credit firms that research and draft deal memos. 

This new generation of AI agents does more than translate prompts and craft answers. The new agents are capable of acting autonomously. The potential use cases in banking are almost endless.

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Bad news for banks: Cybersecurity talent shortage is growing

Article by Carter Pape

Job opportunities for cybersecurity specialists continue to grow significantly faster than other occupations, and cybersecurity experts are in high demand, especially in the financial services industry.

The findings are significant for banks, which represent a respectable share of the cybersecurity job market and often must compete with tech companies for top cybersecurity talent.

According to an October survey from Boston Consulting Group, within the global cybersecurity job market, 1.2 million cybersecurity professionals are employed by the financial services sector, behind only the technology sector, which has 1.4 million.

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Varo CEO Colin Walsh taps Gavin Michael to succeed him

Article by Penny Crosman

Colin Walsh, who founded the neobank Varo Money in 2015, obtained a bank charter for it and ran the digital bank for the past 10 years, is passing his CEO duties to Gavin Michael, who for the past four years has been CEO at the cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt.

Prior to his stint at Bakkt, Michael was head of technology for the global consumer bank at Citi and head of digital for JPMorgan Chase, chief innovation officer at Accenture, chief information officer at Lloyd’s Banking Group and general manager at National Australia Bank.

The two executives’ paths crossed when they both worked at Lloyd’s. (Walsh also worked at Wells Fargo, American Express and Visa.) They stayed in touch and remained friends.

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Bankers say talent gap is in deploying, not building AI

Article by Suman Bhattacharyya

Banks are working to fill talent gaps to compete in the so-called AI arms race, but the most in-demand professionals aren’t necessarily the AI model creators, researchers or data specialists. Instead, many are prioritizing AI implementation roles over research and development positions.

“AI experts are an important part of this, because, obviously, they’re the ones who have the technical expertise,” said Ted Paris, head of analytics, intelligence and AI at TD Bank. 

“However, when we think about being able to actually deliver on these programs and what their promise offers, it’s not simply about doing the analysis [and] building the model,” Paris said. “It’s actually about ensuring that you can effectively implement the model.”

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U.S. real-time payments are set for a boost. Here’s why.

Article by Cheryl Winokur Munk

Faster payments are gaining steam in the U.S., but they’re still far from ubiquitous.

Recent data from The Clearing House shows that in 2024, payment value on its RTP network totaled $246 billion, while volume stood at 343 million transactions with 847 financial institutions registered. The Federal Reserve’s FedNow Service, meanwhile, has more than 1,200 financial institutions registered. In 2024, value totaled $38.2 billion, while settled payments stood at 1.5 million for the year.

There are several potential use cases that are set to make faster payments more compelling for consumers and businesses, boosting adoption in 2025. But challenges persist. There’s no mandate in the U.S. to adopt faster payments, fraud concerns are ongoing and a lack of interoperability between the two faster payment networks impedes growth. Payment professionals said it can take years for new payment methods to live up to their potential.

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A quarter of banks expect M&A deals in 2025: Research

Article by Melinda Huspen

Mergers and acquisitions in the financial industry are anticipated to increase in 2025, according to research released by American Banker.

Of the 212 executives at banks, fintechs and credit unions surveyed in American Banker’s 2025 Predictions Report, 25% of the respondents expect their firm to merge with another financial institution within the next year.

Banks are pursuing M&A deals to expand their market share, improve client segmentation and enhance deposit growth, according to Capco partner Matthew Markham.

“You can have a retail bank that doesn’t have a very strong commercial footprint targeting a commercial bank, or a commercial bank that is traditionally focused on the commercial market space but wants to expand into a retail portfolio or grow their deposit growth,” Markham said.

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