Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t just transforming workplaces; it’s increasingly showing up on resumes. According to Monster’s AI Resume Trends Report, the percentage of resumes including at least one AI-related term skyrocketed from just 3.7% in 2023 to 12.8% in 2025. That means 1 in 8 resumes are now listing at least one AI term. That surge, more than threefold in two years…
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Banks’ outdated payment infrastructures are increasingly handing market share to faster-moving fintech competitors. As merchants and customers demand seamless digital experiences, real-time processing, and embedded finance options, legacy systems—built for batch processing and slower rails—create bottlenecks that hinder innovation and responsiveness. Industry professionals warn that without urgent modernization, traditional banks risk losing customer relationships as alternatives quietly gain traction.
Tech experts emphasize that updating core infrastructure is no longer optional but essential for competing with digital-first players.
Outdated platforms restrict participation in emerging areas such as real-time payment networks, digital assets, and API-driven embedded services. Fintechs, unburdened by decades-old code, can develop and deploy new capabilities far more rapidly, according to Capgemini’s analysis of global payment trends.
Recent research underscores the scale of the challenge. Accenture’s Payments Technology Reinvention Study reveals that 59% of banks continue to grapple with legacy payments IT systems and infrastructure, limiting their ability to meet evolving customer demands affordably and at speed.
PwC’s Financial Services Industry Survey 2025 finds that 45% of banking executives identify payment and transaction platforms as their single largest competitive threat, while 43% have delayed major technology initiatives due to integration complexities.
Deloitte highlights the need to retire legacy systems in favor of platforms supporting real-time payments, ISO 20022 standards, and scalable interoperability to stay relevant.
EY notes that high maintenance costs and inefficiency from on-premises legacy technology put banks at a disadvantage against cloud-native fintechs that deliver innovation more quickly and at lower cost.
Analysts point to misallocated resources as a core issue.
Many institutions pour budgets into patching existing systems rather than strategic replacement, underestimating the loss of institutional knowledge from outsourcing and staff turnover.
“Banks that treat payments infrastructure as a core strategic priority early on position themselves as leaders,” observes one payments executive.
Forward-thinking institutions are adopting modular, API-first architectures, real-time data frameworks, AI-driven automation, and cloud migration to unlock efficiency and collaboration.
Practical examples illustrate the stakes.
Banks like Cross River have built in-house API-driven cores to power high-volume real-time disbursements, while NatWest launched a separate digital entity on modern technology to serve niche segments without retrofitting legacy platforms.
US Bank has leveraged real-time networks for instant dealer funding, yet fintechs still dominate many adjacent spaces.
Capgemini projects strong growth in instant payments and e-money wallets, signaling accelerating demand that legacy systems struggle to meet.
Experts recommend a holistic approach: mapping current dependencies, reallocating budgets from maintenance to replacement, and exploring “sidecar” models for experimentation.
PwC advocates rethinking processes through cloud adoption and real-time rails, while Accenture stresses reinventing payments technology to capture a multibillion-dollar growth opportunity.
The main takeaway is evident: incremental fixes are no longer sufficient.
As indicated in an update from the American Banker and other outlets, banks must prioritize comprehensive modernization to safeguard customer loyalty, reduce long-term costs, and reclaim ground from disruptive fintechs. Those that act decisively—embracing data-rich, interoperable, and future-ready systems—will thrive in the evolving payments landscape; those that hesitate may find their relevance steadily eroded.
MacKenzie Scott has continued her giving spree to historically Black colleges and universities, and this time she’s crossed a milestone.
One of the billionaire philanthropist’s latest gifts, a $42 million donation to Elizabeth City State University on the school’s Founders Day in North Carolina, pushes her total giving to HBCUs well past the $1 billion mark. And that’s just part of Scott’s $26 billion philanthropic commitment since 2020, in which she’s donated to thousands of organizations focused on DEI, disaster recovery, community development, health, and environmental causes. Tuesday also happens to be Scott’s 55th birthday.
Elizabeth City State University Chancellor S. Keith Hargrove, Sr., expressed his “deepest gratitude” for Scott’s gift, saying she recognizes” the critical role that HBCUs play in expanding opportunity and strengthening communities.”
“Her investment affirms what we already know: that institutions like ECSU are powerful catalysts for change,” Hargrove said in a statement. “Gifts like this do more than provide resources; they accelerate momentum.” Scott’s donation will help the school’s ASCEND 2030 strategic plan, expanding opportunities for students and strengthening ties to the surrounding community.
The gift is the latest in a pattern Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has been building since 2020, when she first began directing hundreds of millions of dollars toward HBCUs. One such gift was to Howard University, the alma mater of former Vice President Kamala Harris, Thurgood Marshall, and Toni Morrison (with whom Scott shares a deep connection). Scott, who is worth an estimated $38.3 billion, donated $80 million to Howard in November 2025, which was one of the school’s largest donations in its 158-year history.
These donations share a commonality: They’re unrestricted, meaning schools can allocate them however they see fit, which could include funded scholarships, fortified endowments, attracted faculty, and bankrolled long-deferred facility upgrades. That flexibility, rare in philanthropy, is the cornerstone of what has made her approach so distinctive.
“She practices trust-based philanthropy,” Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation, previously told Fortune. (Scott made two major donations to a veterans-focused organization: $15 million in 2022 and $20 million in 2025). Noni Ramos, CEO of Housing Trust Silicon Valley, has similarly noted Scott’s donations are “unlike traditional funding processes,” which typically involve lengthy applications, specific restrictions, and reporting requirements.
“Her style empowers organizations like ours to determine how best to direct funds quickly and innovatively to address pressing issues,” Ramos told Fortune in 2024.
Scott’s HBCU giving exists within a broader DEI-focused philanthropic strategy that has become increasingly pronounced as the Trump administration rolls back federal support for diversity-focused programs and institutions. In 2025 alone, she donated $70 million each to the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and the United Negro College Fund.
Scott’s motivation for giving at this scale traces back, in part, to formative experiences during her college years. A dentist once offered her free dental work when he saw her securing a broken tooth with denture glue, and a college roommate loaned her $1,000 when she saw her crying about nearly having to drop out during her sophomore year.
“It is these ripple effects that make imagining the power of any of our own acts of kindness impossible,” Scott wrote in a December 2025 essay. “The potential of peaceful, non-transactional contribution has long been underestimated, often on the basis that it is not financially self-sustaining, or that some of its benefits are hard to track. But what if these imagined liabilities are actually assets?”
The simple pleasure of giving also plays a role.
“Generosity and kindness engage the same pleasure centers in the brain as sex, food, and receiving gifts, and they improve our health and long-term happiness as well,” Scott said.
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Home prices in Toronto fell to their lowest level in more than five years as an outlook for slow economic growth and broader global turmoil make prospective buyers cautious.
For decades, the dominant explanation for low investment participation and suboptimal portfolio choices has been a lack of information. Investors, we are told, do not invest well because they do not understand risk, returns, or financial products. The implied solution is therefore to provide more education, clearer disclosures, and better data.
Yet despite significant investments in financial literacy programs, improved transparency, and broader access to markets, many of the same behavioral patterns persist. Investors remain overly conservative in their asset allocation, exit markets during periods of volatility, delay participation despite rising income, and display deep mistrust of financial institutions.
These outcomes are observed not only among retail investors, but also among highly educated and financially sophisticated individuals. The consequences are measurable: investors hold excess cash during expansions, sell into drawdowns, and systematically erode long-term returns.
This begs the question for all investment professionals serving retail investors: What if information, while necessary, is not sufficient to change behavior?
The 2026 Inc. Regionals list honored 30 companies from the Atlanta metro area for their impressive two-year growth rate.
2026.4 Update: Besides the $200 plus 6% cash back in the category of your choice for the first year offer provided by BoA itself, third party website Rakuten offers an additional $75 cashback. Note that if you choose to earn MR on Rakuten you may see $0 additional cashback, you need to choose to earn cashback on Rakuten. HT: DoC.
2025.6 Update: The new offer is $200 plus 6% cash back in the category of your choice for the first year. This is 3% more cashback in addition to the existing 3% cashback rate on category of your choice. The upper limit is the same $2,500 spending per quarter. Therefore, if you are a Platinum Honors member with +75% bonus, you will earn 3%*(1+75%)+3%=8.25% cashback rate! This is the best ever offer on this card.
2023.8 Update: Small improvement about 3% cashback categories: the gas category now includes EV charging; the online shopping category now includes cable, streaming, internet, and phone plan. HT: DoC.
The 3% cashback on online shopping is decent, because the range is very wide. The cap of 3% cashback is a bit small. However, it’s still worth applying if you have zero or very limited credit history. You have to go to a branch to apply if you do not have any credit history, note that you will not get any sign-up bonus applying in branch, but don’t care about the bonus for your first credit card. You could switch to other credit cards with better rewards once you have enough credit history.
There are several other versions of this card. The benefits are identical, but BoA treat them as separate products. Therefore if you are interested, you can apply for all of them as long as BoA 2/3/4 Rule is satisfied. Why you may want to get these cards? Apart from the sign up bonuses, you can also increase the 3% cashback limit by holding multiple of these cards.
Many income investors are understandably attracted to the energy sector. The dividend yields offered by energy stocks are often quite juicy. However, there are some downsides to investing in some energy stocks. For example, the volatility of oil and gas prices can, in some cases, reduce the dependability of their cash flow and dividends.
Not every energy stock comes with this baggage, though. Midstream energy companies aren’t concerned with oil and gas prices. Their pipelines are akin to toll roads, collecting fees for moving liquids through their pipelines regardless of oil and gas price swings. If you like energy stocks, in general, I think you’ll love these three pipeline stocks that you can hold forever and let the income roll in.
Image source: Getty Images.
Enbridge (ENB 0.76%) ranks as the largest midstream energy stock based on market cap. It’s not surprising, therefore, that the company operates the world’s longest (and most complex) crude oil distribution network, with 18,085 miles of pipeline in the U.S. and Canada. Enbridge also operates 70,273 miles of natural gas pipeline, including the assets of its DCP Midstream joint venture with Phillips 66 (PSX +0.64%).
But as impressive as Enbridge’s pipeline networks are, there’s more to this company than just pipelines. Enbridge is also a utility stock. It’s the largest natural gas utility in North America by volume. The company is also investing in renewable energy, with a renewable energy capacity of roughly 7.2 gigawatts, including projects either operating or under construction.
Today’s Change
(-0.76%) $-0.41
Current Price
$53.74
Market Cap
$117B
Day’s Range
$53.70 – $54.32
52wk Range
$39.80 – $55.44
Volume
209
Avg Vol
5.3M
Gross Margin
32.74%
Dividend Yield
5.09%
Like many pipeline stocks, Enbridge offers an attractive dividend. Its yield currently stands at around 5.3%. More impressively, though, the company has increased its dividend for 31 consecutive years.
Enbridge’s management has identified $50 billion of growth opportunities through 2030. And leadership has demonstrated that the numbers provided are reliable, as the company has achieved or exceeded management’s financial guidance for 20 consecutive years.
Want pipelines? Energy Transfer (ET +0.16%) has them — a whopping 140,000 miles of pipeline across the U.S. The midstream energy company focuses especially on the Permian Basin area in west Texas and the energy hub region near Houston, Texas.
Energy Transfer is a favorite for many income investors. Its forward dividend yield tops 7%. The master limited partnership (MLP) continues to maintain strong distribution coverage. Management is targeting distribution growth of between 3% and 5% per year.
Today’s Change
(0.16%) $0.03
Current Price
$18.96
Market Cap
$65B
Day’s Range
$18.90 – $19.17
52wk Range
$14.90 – $19.86
Volume
51
Avg Vol
16M
Gross Margin
12.27%
Dividend Yield
6.99%
This pipeline stock could also appeal to value investors. Energy Transfer’s units trade at only 11.4 times forward earnings and 0.76 times trailing 12-month sales.
What about growth? This stock offers something on that front, too. Energy Transfer has a robust backlog of capital projects. It’s enjoying strong growth due to surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), with the company signing long-term agreements to supply natural gas to three Oracle (ORCL 0.57%) data centers.
If I had to pick the best-managed midstream energy company, my vote would go to Enterprise Products Partners (EPD +0.69%). Nearly everything about this pipeline stock screams “steady Eddie.”
For example, Enterprise Products Partners boasts the highest credit rating in the midstream energy industry. It has delivered reliable cash flow per unit and double-digit returns on invested capital for two decades, a period that included several serious challenges for the energy sector.
Enterprise Products Partners
Today’s Change
(0.69%) $0.26
Current Price
$37.83
Market Cap
$82B
Day’s Range
$37.40 – $37.94
52wk Range
$27.86 – $39.73
Volume
2.4
Avg Vol
4.7M
Gross Margin
12.86%
Dividend Yield
5.75%
Enterprise Products Partners has increased its distribution for 27 consecutive years. Its distribution yield is around 5.9%. The MLP has also rewarded unitholders by repurchasing $1.4 billion of its units through the years.
This pipeline stock is poised for growth, thanks to the same tailwinds benefiting both Enbridge and Energy Transfer. With Enterprise Products Partners, you can count on responsible growth investments that don’t weaken the company financially.
