Author: TheWireHub.net

With competition intensifying and consolidation continuing to reshape the financial landscape, community banks are facing mounting pressure to deliver a more modern, seamless digital experience. Consumers and small businesses alike now expect intuitive, always-on digital banking — and many institutions are struggling to deliver. To stand out in an increasingly crowded landscape and unlock meaningful growth in 2026, institutions should focus on four essential strategies to elevate their digital capabilities and set themselves apart. Unlocking the Power of Data Financial institutions sit on a goldmine of data — transactional records, account details, and personal data — from the consumers and…

What is an NFT in simple words?An NFT is a digital asset that certifies ownership of art, game items, or other digital content on the blockchain.Is minting an NFT expensive in 2026?No, many blockchains now offer very low fees, and lazy minting removes upfront costs.Can NFTs still make money in 2026?Yes, but only projects with utility, gaming use, or a strong community usually succeed now.Do NFTs work only on Ethereum?No, NFTs are also created on Polygon, Solana, Base, and other blockchains.Are NFTs safe for beginners?They are generally safe, but learning basics and avoiding scams is still very important.

As reported by TechCrunch, Apple’s iPhone shipment share in India rose to a record 9% in 2025, according to Counterpoint Research data. Here are the details. From TechCrunch: Apple’s iPhone is gaining ground fast in India, shipping about 14 million units in 2025, based on market data shared exclusively with TechCrunch. Yet the country’s overall smartphone market stayed largely flat at around 152 million to 153 million devices. That means that across the full-year of 2025, Apple’s market share of shipments rose to a record 9%. This is up from 7% in 2024, Counterpoint Research data shows, making it the…

Rep. Carolyn Caiharr, an Edwardsville Republican, questioned a proponent of a bill that would allow lenders to charge a prepayment penalty to real estate investors. (Screen capture from the House Financial Institutes and Pensions Committee)TOPEKA — Real estate investors buying residential buildings in Kansas could be charged a penalty for paying off their mortgages early under proposed changes to the Kansas Contracts and Promises statute. The statute currently bars lenders from charging prepayment penalties on “any home loan” paid off after six months from the day the loan was taken out, the House Financial Institutions and Pensions Committee heard Monday. It doesn’t…

Sponsored ContentThis article is brought to you by Gregory Ricks & Associates.The start of a new year often ushers in a desire to reevaluate goals, reflect on life changes, and set expectations for the year ahead. When it comes to financial health, regular checkups are essential to maintaining a strong foundation. Working with a wealth management firm can provide guidance on major financial considerations such as investments, retirement planning, taxes, and estate planning. “A benefit of working with a wealth management firm is the opportunity to collaborate with a team of professionals who have experience in financial planning and decision-making,”…

A comprehensive look at local, multi-state and national news events provided by the ABC 6 News Team including updates on sports and weather conditions and traffic.(ABC 6 News) – Young kids spend an incredible amount of time on smartphones and tablets, watching videos and playing games. Screens are not going anywhere, but one app is trying to bring back something a little more old school. Creativity.It is called Splat, and it turns everyday photos into personalized coloring book pages.What kid does not love to color? The problem is finding coloring books that actually feel personal or interesting. Splat lets kids…

With community opposition growing, data center backers are going on a full-scale public relations blitz. Around Christmas in Virginia, which boasts the highest concentration of data centers in the country, one advertisement seemed to air nonstop. “Virginia’s data centers are … investing billions in clean energy,” a voiceover intoned over sweeping shots of shiny solar panels. “Creating good-paying jobs” — cue men in yellow safety vests and hard hats — “and building a better energy future.”The ad was sponsored by Virginia Connects, an industry-affiliated group that spent at least $700,000 on digital marketing in the state in fiscal year 2024.…

The Trump administration is planning to use artificial intelligence to write federal transportation regulations, according to U.S. Department of Transportation records and interviews with six agency staffers.The plan was presented to DOT staff last month at a demonstration of AI’s “potential to revolutionize the way we draft rulemakings,” agency attorney Daniel Cohen wrote to colleagues. The demonstration, Cohen wrote, would showcase “exciting new AI tools available to DOT rule writers to help us do our job better and faster.”Discussion of the plan continued among agency leadership last week, according to meeting notes reviewed by ProPublica. Gregory Zerzan, the agency’s general…

Capital One’s $5.15 billion acquisition of Brex underscores the growing convergence between fintech platforms and traditional banking.Getty ImagesWhen Capital One agreed to pay $5.15 billion for fintech startup Brex, the cash-and-stock transaction underscored a paradigm shift in financial services: The most successful fintechs are becoming too strategically important for banks to ignore.The timing matters. Fintech funding hasn’t collapsed, but it has changed shape. According to Crunchbase data, global venture funding to fintech startups jumped 27% in 2025 even as deal volume declined, signaling a market defined by fewer, larger checks flowing to more mature platforms. That shift favors companies with…

Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Ripple (XRP) prices recovered slightly at the time of writing on Monday after correcting by over 7%, 14%, and 7%, respectively. The top three cryptocurrencies are nearing key support levels, and if they hold, could consolidate or extend their recovery in the upcoming days.Bitcoin recovers after a massive correctionBitcoin price closed below the midpoint of a horizontal parallel channel at $87,787 on Sunday, following a 7.4% correction last week. At the time of writing on Monday, BTC recovers slightly, nearing this broken level.If BTC breaks and closes above $87,787 on a daily basis, it could…

Our AI glasses are reshaping how people experience the world, unlocking new paths of creativity and self-expression while empowering you to learn and connect in more intuitive ways. They’re also driving economic and societal value by giving farmers real-time agricultural data about their crops, allowing college athletic trainers to record real-time injury notes on the playing field, and helping universities assist prospective filmmakers. We want to support groups with great ideas so they can have a bigger impact in their communities. Today, we’re launching our AI Glasses Impact Grants that will bolster organizations using our AI glasses to drive positive…

The global stock market rally may be running on borrowed time after a blistering momentum in 2025, with veterans warning that the odds of a correction are rising as stretched valuations collide with mounting geopolitical and policy risks. Equities entered 2026 on a steady footing after a robust year. The MSCI All Country World Index , which measures the performance of over 2,500 large and mid-cap equities from developed and emerging markets, is up over 2% so far this year. It hit a fresh record on Jan. 15 after gaining 20.6% in 2025, data from LSEG showed. However, some investors…

Larry Bomback is the founder of Strategic Nonprofit Finance. In my work with nonprofits and mission-driven institutions over the past 22 years, I’ve seen three recurring “states,” each with a different budgeting owner and a different cadence.When organizations use the wrong budgeting posture for their state, they get misaligned leadership behavior, delayed decisions and often a financial crisis that “came out of nowhere” but actually took months to build.Here’s how to think about budgeting in each state, and how to run a process that matches reality.1. Distressed State: CFO-Led, Top-Down BudgetingA distressed organization is not merely “tight.” It’s structurally out…

If you have a recent Windows PC, everyday performance issues might seem like a thing of the past. But resource-intensive activities like gaming or video editing will always still benefit from as much power as you can give them. And if your PC is getting long in the tooth, squeezing every last drop of speed out of your system becomes even more important.You can try third-party utilities, such as Ashampoo WinOptimizer, CCleaner, or Iolo System Mechanic, to boost performance, but these apps tend to cost money and may interfere with your existing software. Windows itself also has tools that can…

Anis Uzzaman (アニス・ウッザマン ) is the General Partner and CEO at Pegasus Tech Ventures | Chairman of Startup World Cup.We are witnessing a dramatic transformation in the global technology landscape. This is the right time for businesses to rethink how they innovate and grow. Nearly every industry is being reshaped, not only by trends such as generative AI and physical AI but also by the need to modernize infrastructure in response to climate and sustainability regulations.Here are the potential trends I believe will impact the global industry in 2026. Every company should figure out a way to cope with these…

This story was originally published on CFO.com. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CFO.com newsletter. David Ring got his first taste of manufacturing when he worked for accounting firm Baker Tilly Virchow Krause in the early 2000s. Though he was exposed to clients across several industries there, he says the manufacturing sector was the most intriguing to him. So much so that his first and only CFO job to date has been with Oconomowoc, Wisconsin-based manufacturer Sentry Equipment, which he joined back in 2012. The company, which got its start over a century ago as…