A new report from the Federal Trade Commission outlines several risks related to discrimination for companies using "big data" to make decisions about credit, employment and marketing. (ABA Banking Journal)

Financial technology companies had a big year in 2015. An industry that few people outside of specialized lenders had heard of suddenly became a household and Main Street word. Many alternative finance and FinTech companies raised lots of private money in 2015 and small businesses in a wide variety of industries came to understand that they could turn to an alternative and get the money they needed. (ABA Bank Marketing)

Closely held community banks have significantly outperformed widely held community banks in financial performance and operational efficiency, according to new research published today in the FDIC Quarterly. The findings also showed that closely held banks tended to be older and more rural and that they were more likely to raise capital via retained earnings. (ABA Banking Journal)

Low oil prices are rattling global markets and destabilizing economies around the world. They are also posing one of the first big tests to the United States banking system since the financial crisis. Banks of all sizes are marking down the value of loans and setting aside reserves to absorb additional losses as oil producers struggle to pay their debts. (New York Times)

When your bank decides to implement a universal banker approach, employees have to believe in its benefits—both for themselves and for their customers. Otherwise, the bank runs the risk of not reaping the full value from the universal banker concept. (ABA Banking Journal)

Both colossally large and infinitesimally small numbers can be hard to fathom, because they’re so abstract. Visualization can make data at the extremes easier to grasp. The key to doing it well is finding the right scale and the right approach. These examples of visuals help make huge numbers, tiny numbers and moving numbers easier to grasp. (Harvard Business Review)

Apple Pay made a big splash when it arrived in late 2014, but has made few ripples since then, as consumers stuck to their old payment habits and banks in international markets proved reluctant to provide their support. One of Apple's earliest U.S. partners, Union Bank & Trust Co. in Lincoln, Neb., has decided that it's time to take back the reins of its mobile strategy. (American Banker)

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released a new rule last week, limiting who can join a network of government-sponsored home loan banks. The rule excludes so-called captive insurers from membership in the Federal Home Loan Bank, which gives financial institutions access to cheaper capital to finance home loans. These insurers, which largely exist to cover risks of their parent companies, will be phased out of the network over 12 months. (The Hill)

A high-ranking official of the top U.S. banking regulation agency said this week that a proposal to raise the level of long-term debt that big financial companies should issue to help cope with possible failure could reduce financial stability. Instead, the FDIC Vice Chairman said regulators should tailor debt and equity requirements, as well as resolution plans, to the unique conditions of the banks, deciding if additional debt is useful on a company-by-company basis. (Reuters)

Apple CEO Tim Cook lashed out at the high-level delegation of Obama administration officials who came calling on tech leaders in San Jose last week, criticizing the White House for a lack of leadership and asking the administration to issue a strong public statement defending the use of unbreakable encryption. (Chief Executive)

(video) In the wake of the financial crisis, all the big banks had to change executive compensation plans to reduce risks. Regulators are keeping a close eye on these plans and sometimes requiring a mountain of paperwork to document them. Here, Scott Law, the executive vice president and director of compensation at $58 billion asset Zions Bancorporation, talks about how the changes have impacted his company. (Bank Director)

After five years and five different proposals, the Financial Accounting Standards Board is set to issue a final Current Expected Credit Loss standard for impairment of loans and debt securities. With an effective date for fiscal year 2019 for SEC registrants and 2020 for all others, CECL is bound to make a big splash – but not necessarily in ways first anticipated. (ABA Banking Journal)