Home purchase lending hit its highest point since 2007 as low interest rates and growing consumer confidence continue to support the housing market.

Admitting he should have moved more quickly to retool management during a decade of explosive growth, First NBC Bank Chairman and Chief Executive Ashton Ryan Jr. announced several changes designed to improve the New Orleans company's governance practices.

Huntingdon Valley Bank in Pennsylvania has revived its plan for a mutual conversion.

Glen Burnie Bancorp in Glen Burnie, Md., has decided it can do without a chief operating officer.

Old National Bancorp's more than 2,900 employees are treated to a variety of benefits, including financial help during personal emergencies. These benefits are seen as necessary steps to keep employees happy and reduce turnover.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board's accounting rules for credit risk have good intentions, but a likely amplification of the ups and downs of the credit market was probably not one of them.

Severn Bancorp in Annapolis, Md., has redeemed the last shares tied to the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Alliance Data Systems in Plano, Texas, has reached an agreement to provide credit card programs for Williams-Sonoma, the high-end kitchenware retailer.

United Community Financial in Youngstown, Ohio, has agreed to buy Ohio Legacy Corp. in North Canton for $40.3 million, or $18 a share, in cash and stock.

Orrstown Financial Services in Shippensburg, Pa., has hired three former rivals from Metro Bank in Harrisburg: Adam Metz, Andrew Johnson and Doug Hummer.

Technology that improves compliance, lending and payments by automating processes and relying on AI was spotlighted at Next Money and Finovate, two fintech conferences held in New York this week.

Within five years, a dramatic transformation of the mortgage market will force firms to expand product menus beyond mortgages to develop stronger relationships with their customers.

Pacific Continental in Eugene, Ore., has found a key position for an executive from a bank it recently bought.

Colony Bankcorp in Fitzgerald, Ga., has redeemed $3.6 million in perpetual preferred stock associated with the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

A likely sale of CIT Group's aircraft unit (and a whole lot of other stuff) is keeping Ellen Alemany busy, a former Wall Street banker talks about big data as a financial weapon of mass discrimination targeting women and the poor, and First Busey shows how investing in employees pays off. Also, TIAA's Kathie Andrade, Deloitte's Cathy Engelbert and (to spice things up) Victoria Beckham.

A rising number of banks are looking to become community development financial institutions, emboldened by low-cost capital and an exemption from the ability-to-repay rule.

Captex Bancshares, which has been created by George Lea and Michael Thomas Jr., has an agreement to buy the $165 million-asset parent of First National Bank of Trenton. Captex did not disclose how much it would pay for the acquisition, which is expected to close in the first quarter.

Banks are making it easier to get approved for a checking account. But once-banished customers may not be able to use some of the features that made having an account attractive in the first place.

Without incentives to shoot higher, banks usually settle for "Satisfactory" on their Community Reinvestment Act exams, but many find that not getting a better grade has consequences.

The large marketplace lender is turning to everyday savers as it seeks to bounce back from a damaging scandal.