Chris Cumming

The Greek debt crisis and China's stock-market crash may put downward pressure on interest rates and delay the Fed's interest rate hike, and they are adding uncertainty at a time when lenders thought recovery would be taking hold.

The chairman and chief executive of Santander Consumer USA Holdings has resigned, as the subprime auto lender remains under scrutiny for its lending and securitization practices.

Banks used to have almost no involvement with the U.S. patent system, but recently some large institutions, like Bank of America and JPMorgan, have begun locking down intellectual-property rights. The effort appears to be aimed at fending off patent trolls, and it raises fresh questions about which activities are legitimate for financial institutions.

Ally Bank has worked to capitalize on what other banks were doing wrong in retail ever since it launched. Now its newly departed CEO offers some advice to her fellow bankers on how they can do better.

New York Community Bancorp would stay profitable and maintain capital levels well above the necessary minimum if it was hit with a sustained economic shock, its stress-test report said. It is one of the larger banks subject to the so-called DFAST review.

Six regional banks have reported their stress-test results under Dodd-Frank for the first time, projecting Tier 1 common equity ratios ranging from 8.04% to 11.4% after an economic shock. However, several also projected multimillion-dollar losses during the stressful period.

A seemingly minor change to accounting rules governing the treatment of loan losses could effectively serve as a tax on bank acquisitions, say critics. Or not — even accounting experts are split, if not confused, about the rule, after three years of debate.

HSBC executives have suggested for months that big changes were coming to its U.S. unit, but the overhaul was less drastic than some had called for. The parent company's CEO defended the decision as necessary to preserve key funding sources and client relationships.

More lenders of all types are taking an interest in factoring, or buying a company's receivables, as they fight for commercial clients. But the business is forbidding for new entrants: it's dominated by a handful of large companies, with intense competition from smaller nonbanks, and is closely tied to the volatile retail-sales market.

The Department of Justice is looking into whether the two dozen banks that facilitated bribes allegedly paid to FIFA officials knew they were doing so. The case is also a test of how much liability banks have over illegal payments they allow.

Benjamin Lawsky, the New York regulator known for aggressive investigations and headline-grabbing fines against financial firms, is stepping down, and he reportedly plans to make a living offering banks and other companies advice.

Credit unions had the highest satisfaction score (91) of any type of institution, followed by community banks (86), large and midsize banks (79) and the four universal banks (72), according to the Consumer Banking Expectations Index.

Banks' technology investments are helpful but fail to ease customer concerns about the security of personal data, hidden fees and other problems, a new survey shows.

No bank has fully disclosed what it spends on the Federal Reserve's Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review, in part because the figure is hard to isolate. It's a key piece of information missing in the debate over banks' regulatory burden.

The chief executive of CertusBank in Greenville, S.C., has officially stepped down after undergoing heart surgery.

A group of small banks and credit unions could not persuade a judge to block the settlement Target and MasterCard reached last month that would reimburse banks on the card network $19 million for losses related to the retailer's breach.

A group of small banks and credit unions could not persuade a judge to block the settlement Target and MasterCard reached last month that would reimburse banks on the card network $19 million for losses related to the retailer's breach.

A group of credit unions and small banks could not persuade a judge to block the settlement Target and MasterCard reached last month that would reimburse banks on the card network $19 million for losses related to the retailer’s breach.

CertusBank's chief executive, who joined the Greenville, S.C., company after its founders were fired last year, has left his post due to a medical issue.

Trading of securities backed by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie is down sharply since the beginning of the year. Bankers' concerns about capital and rates are among the reasons, and the problem may ultimately make the underlying market for mortgages less liquid.