Jeff Horwitz

Many troubled banks are pleading with investors to sell trust-preferred securities back to them at a discount, warning they may fail otherwise. But a small group of investors are calling the banks' requests a bluff.

An independent analysis of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco's investment portfolio is fueling doubts about the health of the bank, the largest of the 12 institutions in the system.

CIT Group Inc. is rounding out its executive suite, taking another step toward normality for the financing company — and potentially earning regulators' approval for John Thain's planned shift toward a banking model.

A study released on Wednesday by AlixPartners adds to a growing body of research suggesting customers may be near a critical mass of disenchantment with the banking industry.

With the U.S. economy showing signs of a fledgling recovery, some now question whether it makes sense to enmesh the loan rates of U.S. homeowners and small businesses with the ill health of European financial institutions and governments.

RBC Bank CEO Jim Westlake puts to rest any notion of the banker as free-sample pusher; Wells Fargo's lesson in forclosure; crafty bank robber disguise: bank employee.

On Thursday, bank stocks were among the hardest hit in a market decline that brought the major indexes into correction territory.

That half of a crowd composed of Wells' own shareholders doubted the plausibility of the company's growth targets suggests that those targets are extraordinarily ambitious.

Banks did not compete all that much for deposits last year, but the money flowed in anyway. If the first quarter of 2010 is any indication, however, this year may be different.

CIT's first-quarter results revealed a scrubbed balance sheet and a strong liquidity position. Though its prospects are brightening, however, the company is nearly as dependent on government support as before it entered bankruptcy in November.

An incendiary memo from JPMorgan Chase sees a firestorm of backlash; Bank of America hires The History Channel to highlight its noble beginnings; business leaders dine with President Obama; and more.

The banking crisis involved Repo 105 accounting, synthetic-synthetic collateralized debt obligations and special purpose entities, but Elizabeth Warren will tell you the real problem wasn't that complicated.

BNY Mellon's Robert Kelly says regulatory reform needs to address mortgage market woes; Wells' stockholders are less restless than those at other banks; and more.

A dispute between a fish meal maker and a shipping company would not seem likely to affect retail financial services. But the Supreme Court's ruling this week in Stolt-Nielsen SA et al. v. Animalfeeds International Corp. may help banks fight a rash of consumer class-actions over overdraft fees and a host of other practices.

Collateralized debt obligations were never the main avenue for the sale of banks' trust-preferred securities. But it's on such credit-market side streets where their buyers — fellow banks, especially small ones — have gotten mugged.

Tell your customers what fees you charge. Keep your branches clean. Greet people when they come in, and thank them for their business.

Wells Fargo & Co.'s even progress in integrating Wachovia Corp. says a lot about the company. That Wells' revenues still dropped to the lowest levels since last March says just as much about its industry.

At a time when most of the banking industry has begun to whisper about a distant glimmer of normalized earnings, U.S. Bancorp is looking pretty normal already.

Zions Bancorp. reported a loss of $86 million in the first quarter, significantly beating expectations and suggesting the company may have put the worst of its credit troubles behind it.

The country's biggest banks are again making handsome profits from buying and servicing home mortgages. The smaller institutions that produce the loans have not been so fortunate.