Big banks have dominated credit card lending for years, but new regulations have opened the door for small banks to win back some market share.

All the hubbub about smartphones laying the decisive blow to branches is unnecessary; they can peacefully and successfully co-exist with some retooling.

• Graphic: Through the Years

• Letter to the Editor: In Defense of Startups

A study released in 2007 showed a 4.1 percent annual decline in check usage; don't be surprised if the next study shows usage is down by 10 percent.

• BankThink: Start Fresh

• Graphic: Readers Say...

Federal regulators and Justice Department attorneys have put banks on notice that they are serious about fair-lending enforcement. The proof is in the penalties.

The iPad and other coming tablet computers offer a new experience, particularly for personal banking.

Mid-tier banks and thrifts ranked by 3-year average return on equity as of Dec. 31, 2009.

Though still not back to the levels seen before the recession, direct-mail offers are spiking again. One change is that issuers are more choosy about who to target.

Conspicuous consumption is so 2007. FirstBank's campaign celebrates Americans' new penny-pinching ways.

A Virginia community bank is using an old-school tactic—free ATM withdrawals—to win over a new generation of customers.

Despite the battering banks have taken in commercial real estate, some large players are wading back into a CRE pool drained of competitors.

Exempt from a proposal to limit interchange fees, reloadable cards could soon gain more luster with banks.

Small businesses struggling to obtain financing could get a much-needed jolt from an unexpected source.

A pending IRS rule puts the onus on custodians to track and report trades, but it's financial advisers who could be facing investors' wrath at tax time.

Banks must pull costs out of areas that are not central to their mission and put the savings into capabilities that customers care about.

Should state legislatures continue to see value in funding their state bank regulators, the charter in those states would continue to have viability.

The Basel Committee's proposal to raise capital requirements for trade-finance instruments could force banks to scale back lending.

Executive Changes.

Select quotes from the world of financial services.