Financial advisers have known for some time that Americans have lost confidence in their ability to afford a comfortable retirement, but for confidence to plunge just as economic indicators were perking up?

Brokers and financial advisers looking to make more money and have more control over the type of clients they serve and the investments they recommend continued to flood the independent channel at a swift pace in 2010, according to a broker and adviser sentiment index survey conducted on behalf of Fidelity Investments.

Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp.'s former chairman, Lee Farkas, ordered data sent to Colonial Bank for nonexistent loans in an effort to cover up growing deficits, an ex-president said.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency in recent years has required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to contribute to the funds every March, but has yet to make a 2019 request. Housing groups see the delay as a troubling sign.

University Bancorp gained a number of offices from Huron Valley Financial. It also hired lenders and staff with experience in reverse mortgages and wholesale lending.

The bureau had already proposed removing the underwriting portion of the rule, but a judge in Texas has indefinitely delayed the other key component as well.

"Voluntary changes are not enough to assure that our lowest-income consumers will be protected in the long run," writes the Democratic House member from New York City.

In her new book, “Direct: The Rise of the Middleman Economy and the Power of Going to the Source,” Columbia Law professor Kathryn Judge examines how middlemen offer — and often limit — consumer choice.

The text of the Overdraft Protection Act hasn’t changed in 10 years, but the banking industry has shifted dramatically.