By Rae Ann Varona ( February 7, 2025, 9:58 PM EST) — A California judge on Thursday granted Apple’s request to drop a lawsuit against a former employee who allegedly leaked sensitive company information to journalists and others, the same day the software engineer issued a public apology for his “profound and expensive mistake.”… Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Jon Furniss/Getty Images Editor’s Note: ZDNET’s “Technology that Changed Us” series was first published in 2018. We’ve updated this installment to improve its accuracy and ensure that it reflects recent technology developments. In this 50-year retrospective, we’re looking at technologies that had an impact on the world, paved the way for the future, and changed us, in ways good and bad. Also: The 1970s | The 1980s | The 1990s | The 2000s | The 2010s 2000: Google AdWords It’s not hard to see the impact AdWords had on the online advertising industry, but one thing is for sure: Nothing has been the same. AdWords took the risk out of advertising — mostly. Also: Google’s new gen AI tools help hyper-target your ad campaigns Instead of buying an ad for a period of time and paying the fee, advertisers could buy a certain level of performance in terms of click-throughs. But it was also up to the advertiser to properly construct their ads, with better-performing ads rising to the top. This is a huge business. By the end of 2024, Google’s ad revenue was more than $200 billion. Runners up: Microsoft C#. Oh, and we survived Y2K. Apple iPod second generation (Image: Fhke on Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license) 2001: Apple iPod We continue to look at products that laid the foundation for the modern world. Windows XP and OS X (now MacOS) 10.0 were both released in 2001, and served as the foundation for our current desktop operating systems. Also: The best over-ear headphones of 2025 But it was the iPod that continued the tech world’s inexorable move to a mobile-first environment. There were many MP3 players before the iPod. However, the iPod was introduced with what was — for that time — such shockingly generous storage capacity that music lovers could take their entire music collection with them wherever they went. Runners up: Macintosh OS X and Windows XP. 2002: The Tor Project Tor, based originally on an onion router project developed for the US Navy, is designed to keep communications secure, even at a level that can surpass VPNs. The idea behind an onion router is that there are layers of security (like layers in an onion) that would have to be peeled away to find out a user’s identity. Since Tor transmits through a series of IP addresses, the destination IP address will never know the address of the originating IP. Also: How to use Tor browser (and why you should) In a world where privacy is becoming ever more difficult to secure, where governments, terrorists, and criminals are actively spying on users everywhere, a tool to protect privacy becomes ever more important. Unfortunately, like many technologies, privacy provided to the innocent can also be used by bad guys. Even so, the non-profit Tor project exists to preserve and protect identities the world over. Tor, by itself, may not have changed the world as much as something like Android has. But Tor enabled the world changers to work safely and freely, and that’s its ultimate contribution. One of Google’s first Android builds on the Sooner phone. 1.bp.blogspot.com 2003: Android founded Most people think of the Android operating system as something Google developed, but that’s not the whole story. Android was founded as a company, initially intended to build an operating system for digital cameras. At one point, the company was so close to closing down, it couldn’t pay its rent. That was then. Today, Android is the most successful (in terms of user numbers) operating system in history. Unfortunately, it’s also fragmented almost beyond recognition, and suffers from many security concerns and forks. Even so, Android is dominant numerically, and will likely remain so for years. Runners up: iTunes on Windows, DDR2 SDRAM, and H.264. TheFacebook.com: This was the default homepage for users who were not logged in. (Image: web.archive.org) 2004: Facebook founded In addition to Facebook, the company Mark Zuckerberg founded in 2004 as TheFacebook and now known as Meta owns Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger, along with ZDNET’s 2023 Product of the Year, the Quest 3. Together this juggernaut dominates messaging and social media to a degree never before seen. Also: How to protect your privacy from Facebook – and what doesn’t work Not only has Facebook transformed how people connect and communicate, it’s also created its own vast walled garden, filled with details about nearly every human on the planet. How it uses that data, how it manipulates that data, and how it protects that data will be a problem for all of us for years to come. Runners up: Gmail, World of Warcraft, Spirit Mars Rover, and Dr. Bob Dylan. web.archive.org 2005: YouTube In 2005, it was difficult and expensive to distribute video. I did some videos for clients and the challenges and costs were enormous. All that changed when YouTube made internet videos free for everyone. Also: How to download YouTube videos for free Consumers are 27 times (not percent, times!) more likely to click through a video ad than through a standard banner. That alone should get your attention. According to Google parent Alphabet (which owns YouTube), more 18- to 49-year-olds watch YouTube videos on mobile than they watch any broadcast network. Google says the same demographic group dropped TV watching by 4 percent, but in 2015, increased YouTube watch time by 74 percent. Runners up: Reddit, Google Maps, and Xbox 360. 2006: Twitter (now known as X) What can you say about Twitter in 140 characters? #TurnsOut #YouCanSayALot. Although Twitter increased its character count to 280 in 2017, the micro-blogging service created a new way to reach a tremendous number of people, instantly. Perhaps nothing showcases Twitter’s power more than Donald Trump’s initial rise to US President. By using Twitter, Trump bypassed all the gatekeepers and built his own audience of dedicated fans. Also: How to delete your X/Twitter account for good (and protect your data) Of course, Twitter’s story since that time has been its own soap opera. Elon Musk

By Theresa Schliep ( February 7, 2025, 9:25 PM EST) — A company fighting for attorney fees at the Federal Circuit after successfully challenging a patent’s validity before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to take on a similar case addressing eligibility for fees in board proceedings pursued against “exceptional” infringement plaintiffs. … Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More OpenAI is now showing more details of the reasoning process of o3-mini, its latest reasoning model. The change was announced on OpenAI’s X account and comes as the AI lab is under increased pressure by DeepSeek-R1, a rival open model that fully displays its reasoning tokens. Models like o3 and R1 undergo a lengthy “chain of thought” (CoT) process in which they generate extra tokens to break down the problem, reason about and test different answers and reach a final solution. Previously, OpenAI’s reasoning models hid their chain of thought and only produced a high-level overview of reasoning steps. This made it difficult for users and developers to understand the model’s reasoning logic and change their instructions and prompts to steer it in the right direction.  OpenAI considered chain of thought a competitive advantage and hid it to prevent rivals from copying to train their models. But with R1 and other open models showing their full reasoning trace, the lack of transparency becomes a disadvantage for OpenAI. The new version of o3-mini shows a more detailed version of CoT. Although we still don’t see the raw tokens, it provides much more clarity on the reasoning process. Why it matters for applications In our previous experiments on o1 and R1, we found that o1 was slightly better at solving data analysis and reasoning problems. However, one of the key limitations was that there was no way to figure out why the model made mistakes — and it often made mistakes when faced with messy real-world data obtained from the web. On the other hand, R1’s chain of thought enabled us to troubleshoot the problems and change our prompts to improve reasoning. For example, in one of our experiments, both models failed to provide the correct answer. But thanks to R1’s detailed chain of thought, we were able to find out that the problem was not with the model itself but with the retrieval stage that gathered information from the web. In other experiments, R1’s chain of thought was able to provide us with hints when it failed to parse the information we provided it, while o1 only gave us a very rough overview of how it was formulating its response. We tested the new o3-mini model on a variant of a previous experiment we ran with o1. We provided the model with a text file containing prices of various stocks from January 2024 through January 2025. The file was noisy and unformatted, a mixture of plain text and HTML elements. We then asked the model to calculate the value of a portfolio that invested $140 in the Magnificent 7 stocks on the first day of each month from January 2024 to January 2025, distributed evenly across all stocks (we used the term “Mag 7” in the prompt to make it a bit more challenging). o3-mini’s CoT was really helpful this time. First, the model reasoned about what the Mag 7 was, filtered the data to only keep the relevant stocks (to make the problem challenging, we added a few non–Mag 7 stocks to the data), calculated the monthly amount to invest in each stock, and made the final calculations to provide the correct answer (the portfolio would be worth around $2,200 at the latest time registered in the data we provided to the model). It will take a lot more testing to see the limits of the new chain of thought, since OpenAI is still hiding a lot of details. But in our vibe checks, it seems that the new format is much more useful. What it means for OpenAI When DeepSeek-R1 was released, it had three clear advantages over OpenAI’s reasoning models: It was open, cheap and transparent. Since then, OpenAI has managed to shorten the gap. While o1 costs $60 per million output tokens, o3-mini costs just $4.40, while outperforming o1 on many reasoning benchmarks. R1 costs around $7 and $8 per million tokens on U.S. providers. (DeepSeek offers R1 at $2.19 per million tokens on its own servers, but many organizations will not be able to use it because it is hosted in China.) With the new change to the CoT output, OpenAI has managed to somewhat work around the transparency problem. It remains to be seen what OpenAI will do about open sourcing its models. Since its release, R1 has already been adapted, forked and hosted by many different labs and companies potentially making it the preferred reasoning model for enterprises. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently admitted that he was “on the wrong side of history” in open source debate. We’ll have to see how this realization will manifest itself in OpenAI’s future releases. source

By Nadia Dreid ( February 7, 2025, 10:40 PM EST) — The Federal Communications Commission is getting ready to vote on a rule change that would expand the number of voice providers who must comply with the agency’s “do not originate” rules, which aim to staunch onslaughts of scam calls…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Shares in ASML have bounced back from the hit inflicted by DeepSeek’s AI advances. Celebrating the results, ASML predicted that the sudden emergence of low-cost models will boost demand for the firm’s semiconductor machines. The company’s stock price rose by over 10% on Wednesday after the Dutch business reported impressive orders for its chip-making equipment. The tools produce the most advanced semiconductors in the world — and ASML is the only company that manufactures them. This dominant position has made ASML the second most valuable tech firm in Europe. But the business was shaken on Monday by DeepSeek’s rapid AI progress. Last week, the Chinese company released a new chatbot and models with a stunning blend of high performance and low cost. The results sent tech stocks spiralling. Nvidia set an alarming precedent, suffering the largest rout in market history. Webinar: Nurturing Scaleup Success Join us on 18 February for a discussion on the vital role of ecosystems in nurturing startups and scaleups and fostering a dynamic entrepreneurial landscape. Shares in ASML slumped by as much as 12%. But the company has been reinvigorated by strong results from 2024. The firm reported total annual sales of €28.3bn — just above its forecast of €28bn. Net bookings, meanwhile, surged to €7.1bn in the fourth quarter of 2024 — 169% above the €2.63bn reported in Q3. Christophe Fouquet, ASML’s CEO, expects demand for the company’s machines to grow. He told CNBC that the business will benefit from rise of low-cost AI models developed by the likes of DeepSeek. “A lower cost of AI could mean more applications,” Fouquet said. “More applications means more demand over time. We see that as an opportunity for more chips demand.” source

The potential of using artificial intelligence in drug discovery and development has sparked both excitement and skepticism among scientists, investors and the general public. “Artificial intelligence is taking over drug development,” claim some companies and researchers. Over the past few years, interest in using AI to design drugs and optimise clinical trials has driven a surge in research and investment. AI-driven platforms like AlphaFold, which won the 2024 Nobel Prize for its ability to predict the structure of proteins and design new ones, showcase AI’s potential to accelerate drug development. AI in drug discovery is “nonsense,” warn some industry veterans. They urge that “AI’s potential to accelerate drug discovery needs a reality check,” as AI-generated drugs have yet to demonstrate an ability to address the 90% failure rate of new drugs in clinical trials. Unlike the success of AI in image analysis, its effect on drug development remains unclear. Behind every drug in your pharmacy are many, many more that failed.nortonrsx/iStock via Getty Images Plus We have been following the use of AI in drug development in our work as a pharmaceutical scientist in both academia and the pharmaceutical industry and as a former program manager in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA. We argue that AI in drug development is not yet a game-changer, nor is it complete nonsense. AI is not a black box that can turn any idea into gold. Rather, we see it as a tool that, when used wisely and competently, could help address the root causes of drug failure and streamline the process. Most work using AI in drug development intends to reduce the time and money it takes to bring one drug to market – currently 10 to 15 years and US$1 billion to $2 billion. But can AI truly revolutionise drug development and improve success rates? AI in drug development Researchers have applied AI and machine learning to every stage of the drug development process. This includes identifying targets in the body, screening potential candidates, designing drug molecules, predicting toxicity and selecting patients who might respond best to the drugs in clinical trials, among others. Between 2010 and 2022, 20 AI-focused startups discovered 158 drug candidates, 15 of which advanced to clinical trials. Some of these drug candidates were able to complete preclinical testing in the lab and enter human trials in just 30 months, compared with the typical 3 to 6 years. This accomplishment demonstrates AI’s potential to accelerate drug development. Drug development is a long and costly process. On the other hand, while AI platforms may rapidly identify compounds that work on cells in a Petri dish or in animal models, the success of these candidates in clinical trials – where the majority of drug failures occur – remains highly uncertain. Unlike other fields that have large, high-quality datasets available to train AI models, such as image analysis and language processing, the AI in drug development is constrained by small, low-quality datasets. It is difficult to generate drug-related datasets on cells, animals or humans for millions to billions of compounds. While AlphaFold is a breakthrough in predicting protein structures, how precise it can be for drug design remains uncertain. Minor changes to a drug’s structure can greatly affect its activity in the body and thus how effective it is in treating disease. Survivorship bias Like AI, past innovations in drug development like computer-aided drug design, the Human Genome Project and high-throughput screening have improved individual steps of the process in the past 40 years, yet drug failure rates haven’t improved. Most AI researchers can tackle specific tasks in the drug development process when provided with high-quality data and particular questions to answer. But they are often unfamiliar with the full scope of drug development, reducing challenges into pattern recognition problems and refinement of individual steps of the process. Meanwhile, many scientists with expertise in drug development lack training in AI and machine learning. These communication barriers can hinder scientists from moving beyond the mechanics of current development processes and identifying the root causes of drug failures. Current approaches to drug development, including those using AI, may have fallen into a survivorship bias trap, overly focusing on less critical aspects of the process while overlooking major problems that contribute most to failure. This is analogous to repairing damage to the wings of aircraft returning from the battle fields in World War II while neglecting the fatal vulnerabilities in engines or cockpits of the planes that never made it back. Researchers often overly focus on how to improve a drug’s individual properties rather than the root causes of failure. While returning planes might survive hits to the wings, those with damage to the engines or cockpits are less likely to make it back.Martin Grandjean, McGeddon, US Air Force/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA The current drug development process operates like an assembly line, relying on a checkbox approach with extensive testing at each step of the process. While AI may be able to reduce the time and cost of the lab-based preclinical stages of this assembly line, it is unlikely to boost success rates in the more costly clinical stages that involve testing in people. The persistent 90% failure rate of drugs in clinical trials, despite 40 years of process improvements, underscores this limitation. Addressing root causes Drug failures in clinical trials are not solely due to how these studies are designed; selecting the wrong drug candidates to test in clinical trials is also a major factor. New AI-guided strategies could help address both of these challenges. Currently, three interdependent factors drive most drug failures: dosage, safety and efficacy. Some drugs fail because they’re too toxic, or unsafe. Other drugs fail because they’re deemed ineffective, often because the dose can’t be increased any further without causing harm. We and our colleagues propose a machine learning system to help select drug candidates by predicting dosage, safety and efficacy based on five previously overlooked features of drugs. Specifically, researchers could use AI models

Federal Trade Commission Republicans are beginning to signal their Trump-era policies, including a friendlier approach to mergers with fewer challenges based on “weak or factually unsupported theories,” a more hands-off take on artificial intelligence, and a heavy emphasis on combating alleged online censorship of conservatives. source

As a solopreneur, you’re responsible for your business’s growth and handling payroll for one employee, including tax calculations, filings, and record-keeping. Managing all these can be stressful. Fortunately, payroll software and services can automate these processes and save you from potential payroll errors. Here’s my list of the top 10 pay processing software to help you run payroll for 1 employee. 1 Deel Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features 24/7 Customer Support, API, Document Management / Sharing, and more 2 Rippling Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features API, Check Printing, Document Management / Sharing, and more 3 Velocity Global Employees per Company Size Micro (0-49), Small (50-249), Medium (250-999), Large (1,000-4,999), Enterprise (5,000+) Any Company Size Any Company Size Features Employee Database, Multi-Country Payroll, Onboarding, and more Top one-employee payroll software comparison Our rating (out of 5) Starting monthly price Pay runs via mobile app 24/7 customer support Square Payroll 4.00 $35 + $6 per employee Yes No Justworks 3.91 $50 + $8 per employee No Yes QuickBooks Payroll 3.9 $50 + $6 per employee No 24/7 live chat Gusto 3.88 $40 + $6 per employee No No Paychex Flex 3.65 Custom Yes Yes OnPay 3.59 $40 + $6 per employee No No RUN Powered by ADP 3.58 Custom Yes No Patriot Payroll 3.49 $37 + $5 per employee No No Roll by ADP 3.47 $39 + $5 per employee Yes Yes Deel 3.47 $19 per employee No 24/7 live chat *These can end at any time. Visit the providers’ websites to check the latest promotions. 1. Square Payroll: Best overall Our rating: 4.00 out of 5 Image: Square Square Payroll helps small businesses manage their online payroll operations. It runs payroll automatically and handles tax filing across federal, state, and local tax jurisdictions, including end-of-year tax reporting. It supports various employee payment options, such as manual paychecks, direct deposits, and instant payouts via the Square Cash application. This is unlike other providers, such as QuickBooks Payroll, which requires you to upgrade to its higher plans to get same-day payments. In addition, Square Payroll is compatible and integrates with client payment processing and accounting software, such as Square POS and QuickBooks Online. The automatic data syncs between Square and its partner programs make tip tracking and bookkeeping easy. Pricing Square Payroll offers two pricing plans: Full-service payroll: $35 per month plus $6 per employee per month. Contractor-only payroll: $6 per employee per month. With an overall score of 4 out of 5 in my evaluation, Square Payroll is cheaper than Gusto and OnPay (both with monthly fees of $40 + $6 per employee). However, it has limited HR tools. Square Payroll also charges an annual fee of $3 per form if you want them to mail paper copies of payroll tax forms—although digital versions of tax documents are free. Square Payroll pros and cons Pros Cons Easy integration with Square products Limited HR tools Intuitive mobile app with payroll features Lacks 24/7 support and HR advisory services Straightforward system and account setup Why I chose Square Payroll If you have a retail or service-based business, Square’s extensive product suite makes it a good option for managing payments, point-of-sale transactions, and payroll for one employee. Its different products sync easily, and you can transfer funds from your Square balance to the Square Cash app to pay yourself instantly or send funds to your bank account for two- or four-day direct deposit payouts. I also like its online seller community or forum, where you can connect with other small business owners and Square users. This is helpful if you need advice on boosting sales or have questions about using Square Payroll’s features. Square Payroll has an automatic pay run option that you can easily switch on and off. Image: Square Payroll Learn more about Square Payroll Read the full Square Payroll review. Interested in seeing how Square Payroll compares to the other payroll tools in this guide? Check these out: 2. Justworks: Best for compliance support Our rating: 3.91 out of 5 Image: Justworks As a professional employer organization (PEO) service provider, Justworks handles the intricacies of pay processing to give you more time to run your business. However, apart from its PEO service, it has a payroll-only option that includes automatic wage and deduction calculations, tax filing assistance, and payroll compliance. This is great for one-employee businesses looking for a reliable payroll tool because most PEOs require at least two employees if you want to sign up for its services. Even with its payroll-only option, you get dedicated phone support and integration options with accounting tools like QuickBooks Online for easy pay data transfers and accurate bookkeeping. It also provides real-time alerts to help keep you on top of federal and state compliance requirements. This leaves you with more time running your business instead of constantly checking labor laws and federal regulations for updates. Pricing Justworks Payroll costs $50 per month plus $8 per employee per month. This option doesn’t include health or retirement plans like most of the software on my list. However, if want to get medical, dental, and vision insurance, its health insurance add-on for the payroll-only plan costs $8 per employee per month. If you decide to expand your business globally and need help hiring and paying international workers, you can get its employer of record (EOR) services for $599 per employee per month. For its PEO services, Justworks offers two plans: Basic: $59 per employee per month. Plus: $109 per employee per month. With a 3.69 out of 5 score, Justworks Payroll may be pricier than the others on my list, but it offers more than processing payroll for 1 employee. You get the benefit of its compliance expertise as a PEO, so you’re assured that pay processes always meet federal and state regulations. You

The best banks for real estate investors provide banking accounts designed to streamline rental property operations. These banks offer business software integrations and low banking fees to help maximize profits from property investments. Additionally, they provide access to commercial real estate (CRE) lending solutions and include valuable features such as rent collection and cash flow management tools. Here is a list of the seven best banks for real estate investors. Best overall bank for real estate investors: Baselane Provider is a fintech platform; not a bank. It provides FDIC insurance and deposit services through a partnership with Thread Bank. Best for long-term owner-occupied CRE loans and welcome bonus: U.S. Bank Member FDIC. Best for a variety of CRE loans and wide branch access: Chase Member FDIC. Best small business line of credit and interest-earning checking: Bluevine Provider is a fintech platform; not a bank. It provides FDIC insurance and deposit services through a partnership with Coastal Community Bank. Best for online rent collection with banking product: Stessa Provider is a fintech platform; not a bank. It provides FDIC insurance and deposit services through a partnership with Thread Bank. Best for SBAⓘ financing and high-yield bundled accounts: Grasshopper Member FDIC. Best for customized CRE lending solutions and maximum APY earnings: First Internet Bank Member FDIC. Best banks for real estate investors quick comparison The table below reflects the top factors I evaluated for the seven best banks for real estate investors. Available loan information per provider Loan amount Interest rate Loan terms Loan types Minimum time in business and revenue Baselane Landlord Banking $100,000 to $3 million for conventional loans Varies Up to 30 years Conventional loans, rental loans (DSCR), portfolio rental loans, and short-term rentals Undisclosed U.S. Bank Silver Business Checking Up to $12.375 million for SBA loans and up to $250,000 for quick loans Based on WSJ Prime interest rates Up to 25 years Lines of credit, quick loans, term loans, CRE loans, and SBA loans Generally two years; undisclosed Chase Business Complete Checking® Up to $500,000 for lines of credit and small business loans Varies Up to 25 years for CRE loans Lines of credit, small business loans, SBA loans, and CRE financing Undisclosed Bluevine Standard Up to $250,000 for lines of credit As low as 7.8% Six or 12 months Lines of creditTerm loans and SBA loans via partners 12+ months; $10,000 monthly or $120,000 annually Stessa Cash Management N/A Grasshopper Innovator Business Checking Starts at $1 million for CRE loans and starts at $250,000 for SBA loans Varies Generally two years SBA 7(a) loans and CRE loans Undisclosed First Internet Bank Do More BusinessTM Checking Up to $5 million for SBA loans and starts at $100,000 for lines of credit Based on Prime rates Varies Lines of credit, term loans, CRE loans, and SBA loans Undisclosed Image: Baselane Baselane: Best overall bank for real estate investors Our rating: 4.11 out of 5 Baselane is a financial technology (fintech) platform designed for real estate investors. It offers multiple checking accounts for managing profits, paying bills, and safeguarding security deposits. In addition to its banking solutions, Baselane provides features such as rent collection, tenant screening, and bookkeeping services. The platform also partners with selected lenders to offer a broad range of financing options for rentals, new construction, Airbnb properties, and fix-and-flips. Why I chose it I chose Baselane as the overall best bank for real estate investors because it offers a business checking account with no monthly fees or required opening deposits. You also get unlimited virtual accounts to store security deposits for each tenant. Baselane simplifies the rent collection process with automated invoicing, reminders, and late fee notices, making it efficient to manage your rental properties. Additionally, setting up an account online is quick and straightforward. Monthly fees Minimum opening deposit: None. APY: Tiered up to 3.35% under savings accounts. ATM fees: None at over 55,000 Allpoint ATMs. Features No minimum balance requirement. Security deposit or virtual accounts. Quick rent collection through QuickPay. Tenant screening service available. Multiple accounts per property. Free incoming domestic wires and ACH transfers. Free rental income calculator and printable lease agreements. Automated invoicing and integrated bookkeeping. Pros and cons Pros Cons No monthly fees or initial deposit requirements. Debit card cash back rewards. FDIC insurance of up to $3 million. No physical branches. No money market account and certificates of deposit. Image: U.S. Bank U.S. Bank: Best for long-term owner-occupied CRE loans and welcome bonus Our rating: 4.06 out of 5 U.S. Bank, a traditional financial institution, offers a variety of CRE lending solutions for investors interested in purchasing multi-family buildings or renovating commercial properties. The bank provides three business checking accounts that can be opened online, including the Silver Business Checking account, which features no monthly fee, 125 free monthly transactions, and a cash deposit allowance of $2,500 per month. See our U.S. Bank business checking review for details on key features. Why I chose it I recommend U.S. Bank for long-term owner-occupied CRE loans, as you can pay off the loan over 25 years. You can secure an SBA 504 real estate loan of up to $12.375 million to purchase commercial real estate, refinance, or fund construction. Additionally, an incentive I like is the opportunity to earn a bonus of up to $900 when you open a new, eligible U.S. Bank business checking account online (promo code: Q1AFL25) and complete qualifying activities, subject to certain terms and limitations — offer valid through March 31, 2025. Member FDIC. Monthly fees Silver Business Checking: $0. Gold Business Checking: $20; waivable by having any of these: A U.S. Bank Payment Solutions Merchant account. $10,000 average collected balance. $20,000 combined average collected business deposit balances. $50,000 combined average collected business deposits and outstanding credit balances. Platinum Business Checking: $30; waivable by having any of these: $25,000 average collected checking balance. $75,000 combined average collected business deposits and outstanding credit balances. Features Commercial property loans with 5, 10, and 15-year terms. SBA financing. QuickBooks