Banks across the country are finding new ways to use their real estate—to serve customers, engage their communities or lend a hand. In the gallery above, check out five banks whose branches serve a creative purpose beyond tellers and transactions. (ABA Banking Journal)

Robert Kaplan, president and CEO of the Dallas Fed, recently sat down with Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal to talk about the issues facing monetary policy markers at this point, as well as the problems facing his own district. (Marketplace)

ABA has joined the Financial Data Exchange, one of eight organizations—among them Mastercard, Visa and SunTrust Banks—to join FDX this summer. FDX is a nonprofit organization dedicated to consumer control of financial data through an open banking API and technical standards that prioritize security, transparency and user experience. (ABA Banking Journal)

U.S. consumer confidence retreated a bit in August as optimism on the present situation improved to its highest since late 2000, offsetting a weakening in the outlook on economic conditions, the Conference Board said this week. The group’s index on consumer confidence slipped to 135.1 in August from an upwardly adjusted 135.8 the month before. (CNBC)

Banking’s mission is something that ABA Chairman Jeff Szyperski, of Virginia's Chesapeake Bank. likes to emphasize at his bank as a means of setting it apart from other employers. (ABA Banking Journal)

Nyca Partners, a firm with investments in financial technology businesses including PayRange, Trellis, Affirm and Acorns, has collected another $210 million for its third venture capital fund, as VC investment in fintech is poised to reach new heights this year. (TechCrunch)

Demand for credit cards remains relatively stable and banks are introducing new technologies like AI and chatbots into the payments experience, according to the biennial Credit CARD Act report released by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (ABA Banking Journal)

ABA joined several trade groups in filing a friend-of-the-court brief urging a federal appellate court to reverse a lower court’s order that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission collect voluminous EEO-1 data on employees’ pay and hours worked (known as “Component 2 Data”). (ABA Banking Journal)

The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council updated its Flood Disaster Protection Act examination manual to reflect changes resulting from the new private flood rule, which went into effect on July 1, 2019. (ABA Banking Journal)

In response to recent natural disasters, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has published a national mitigation investment strategy, which is intended to provide “a national, whole-community approach to investments in mitigation activities and risk management across federal, state, tribal, territorial, and local government and the private and nonprofit sectors.” (ABA Banking Journal)

The federal banking agencies’ June proposal to clarify the regulatory capital treatment of land development loans for single-family homes does not conform with the intent of the S. 2155 regulatory reform law, ABA said in a comment letter. (ABA Banking Journal)

As seniors struggle with healthcare costs, a recently introduced bipartisan bill would allow greater flexibility by giving them the option to purchase a health savings account, writes Kevin McKechnie, executive director of ABA’s HSA Council, in this op-ed. (The Hill)

As the 2020 election cycle gears up, an article in the Wall Street Journal highlighted ABA’s political engagement efforts, including the association’s plans to spend more than $10 million in support of pro-banking congressional candidates from both parties. (ABA Banking Journal)