Alan Kline

Nearing a deal with five large mortgage servicers to settle allegations of misconduct relating to foreclosures, the Justice Department is now asking other banks that could face charges of their own if they would like to get in on the settlement.

Five community banks, including one in Boston that is a designated community development lender, have received "needs to improve" ratings on their most recent Community Reinvestment Act examinations.

Spanish banking giant Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argenteria said Tuesday that it expects to take a goodwill impairment charge of roughly $1.3 billion on its U.S. unit in the fourth quarter due to ongoing concerns about the pace of the economic recovery here.

Wells Fargo & Co. announced Monday that it its board has tapped veteran board member and former General Mills Inc. Chairman Stephen W. Sanger to be its lead director.

Providence Bank in Columbia, Mo., has brought in Kit Stolen 3rd as its new chief executive to oversee the clean-up of its loan portfolio and guide it through its next phase of growth.

With its deal for RBC Bank nearing completion, PNC takes a big step toward goal of reducing overhead by $150 million by early 2013.

A troubled Chicago-area community bank that just received a large capital infusion from its owners is now negotiating to restructure its loan with Cole Taylor Bank as it aims to rebuild its capital reserves.

Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. in Lititz, Pa., is scouting for a new president to run its Baltimore-area operations following the promotion of its current market president to a larger post within the company, the Baltimore Business Journal reported Friday.

He was wrong about Astoria in 2011, but Sandler O'Neill's Mark Fitzgibbon says a focus on multi-family lending and takeover speculation will fuel a run-up in 2012.

Wells Fargo & Co. has agreed to pay nearly $1 million to Maryland residents who lost their homes to foreclosure after receiving so-called "Pick-a-Payment" mortgages originated by lenders Wells later acquired.

Morgan Stanley senior economist Vincent Reinhart is predicting that the rebounding economy will sputter again in the first of this year and that the Federal Reserve will need to jump start it with another round of "quantitative easing."

To succeed this year, banks must balance the near-term need to make loans and the long-term reality that an exodus of low-cost deposits is looming.

Under orders from its regulator to improve its capital ratios, Community First Bank & Trust in Columbia, Tenn., is selling one of its 10 branches to Southern Community Bank in Tullahoma, Tenn., and could be looking to unload several more.

Fifth Third Bancorp told investors Thursday that its fourth-quarter income would be roughly $68 million lower than anticipated, before taxes, due to costs related to its sale of Visa Inc. class B shares in 2009.

John Delaney, the executive chairman of CapitalSource in Bethesda, Md., is taking a leave of absence from the commercial finance company he founded to run for a seat in Congress.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has ordered seven ailing community banks to raise fresh capital and directed three others with elevated loan losses to submit written plans for raising capital should credit quality weaken further.

With stricter capital requirements threatening to crimp profits, France's three largest banks are trimming overhead by laying off hundreds of workers in the U.S.

If Yaron Brook, the president of the Ayn Rand Institute, had his way, the next U.S. president would be former BB&T Corp. Chief Executive John Allison.

The first trading day of the new year was a good one for bank stocks. Amid reports from several analysts predicting that beleaguered bank stocks are poised for a rebound in 2012, shares of many large-cap and regional banks were up sharply Tuesday.

University Bancorp Inc. in Ann Arbor, Mich., has named former Michigan state senator and one-time candidate for governor Alma Wheeler Smith as its new chairperson, replacing Charles McDowell, who died last week.