Bank of Southern California in San Diego has agreed to sell $7 million of its common stock to the asset management firm Castle Creek Capital.

The parent company of the consumer lender LendUp has been fined more than $6.3 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the California Department of Business Oversight for overcharging borrowers and violating payday and installment lending laws.

Concerns about cross-selling run deeper than the risk of misbehavior. The practice also has a questionable economic rationale.

The move is an example of how banks are looking to fintech entrepreneurs to bring innovation in, and it illustrates the emphasis and importance banks are putting on their mobile channels.

The $13 billion-asset company, formed by the merger of BBCN Bancorp and Wilshire Bancorp, said in a press release Monday that it will close 12 branches in southern California, New York and New Jersey as part of a broader cost-cutting effort.

First Merchants Corp. in Muncie, Ind., has agreed to buy a minority stake in Independent Alliance Banks in Fort Wayne, Ind.

The investment bank's annual ranking of midcap all-stars includes 10 returning all-stars from 2015 and 11 newcomers.

Debbie Matz, a former chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, has joined the board of Mutual of Omaha Bank in Nebraska.

American Express can prohibit merchants from steering customers to credit cards with lower transaction fees, a federal appeals court ruled in a case involving about $50 billion of merchant fees annually.

Technology? Bankers can keep up. New regulations? We've got people to handle that. But how to account for the flight of customers, prospective employees and economic opportunities from rural areas is perhaps the biggest challenge facing community lenders and policymakers, warns a longtime Oklahoma banker.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday fined a large auto title lender $9 million for failing to disclose the terms and costs of its title loans in three states, and for illegally exposing consumers' information to their employers.

Park National in Newark, Ohio, has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that its loan-loss accounting underplayed credit problems at a troubled acquisition.

Triumph Bancorp in Dallas plans to issue $50 million in subordinated debt and said proceeds from the offering may be used for acquisitions.

The $2.2 billion-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing that it redeemed $12.2 million, the remaining half of its SBLF shares, on Sept. 22 at a liquidation value of $1,000 each for $12.4 million.

Brookline Bancorp in Boston said James McCarthy will succeed Russell Cole next month as president and CEO of First Ipswich Bank.

First NBC Bank Holding of New Orleans disclosed that it will miss a self-imposed deadline for filing reports for the first and second quarters.

While Russian authorities are still trying to define the legal status of bitcoin, the virtual currency has found use in Moscow in the lobby of the country’s biggest bank.

Up until now, no fintech company has succeeded on a mass scale to offer solutions beyond its core product. But disruptors are trying to go in that direction, and banks should watch their efforts closely.

BNY Mellon's Karen Peetz tops the 25 Most Powerful Women in Banking list; the 25 Most Powerful Women in Finance list is led by Mary Callahan Erdoes at JPMorgan Chase; and Nandita Bakhshi at Bank of the West heads the 25 Women to Watch list.

An analytical mind; a drive to improve; a sense of humility; a leadership gene. Nandita Bakhshi identified these four traits as key in her move up to CEO.