Popular among employees: Citizens Bank of West Virginia provides monthly "smile" lunch, surprise or other fun activity, ranging from tailgates to ice cream socials.

American Savings, No. 59 in the overall ranking, is No. 9 in the category for banks with $3 billion to $10 billion of assets.

Popular with employees: For more than 20 years, First Premier has provided scholarships to high school seniors. Last year, 15 of the 31 $1,000 scholarships awarded went to children of bank employees.

From tying the knot to working out, these institutions from our annual Best Banks to Work For list have given their employees inventive ways to earn extra time off.

Eliminating paper doesn't just speed up processes and cut costs — it's also good for the environment, and helps financial institutions recruit and retain green-minded and tech-savvy young employees. Here's a look at how some of the Best Banks to Work For are saving trees while saving money and time.

Banks are playing a more active role in the next phase of fintech, both as investors and partners, says David Sica, partner at venture capital firm Nyca. That change is shaping how the firm looks at new investments.

F.N.B. in Pittsburgh plans to retain some Yadkin Financial executives and assign them to key roles after it closes its purchase of the North Carolina bank.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is set to release its quarterly update on the industry's health on Aug. 30. The second-quarter Quarterly Banking Profile will indicate whether banks have rebounded from their slight slump in the first quarter.

WASHINGTON – The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is proposing to extend anti-money-laundering requirements to a limited number of financial institutions that are not already regulated by a federal agency.

Hillary Clinton's proposal for regulatory relief for smaller institutions largely tracks with ideas already discussed, but her backing could keep alive the momentum for a reg relief plan should she win in November.

Family Security Credit Union, a $580-million institution based in Decatur, Ala., said it has entered into a definitive agreement to purchase substantially all of the assets and assume the deposits of the privately held Bank of Pine Hill, based in Pine Hill, Ala.

This latest offering from Chase, the U.S. consumer and commercial banking arm of JPMorganChase & Co., is in partnership with digital car-buying service TrueCar.

Nat Hoopes, executive director of a trade group that represents the chief executives of Wall Street banks, is making the jump to fintech.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 28 other business groups urged the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to withdraw its proposal on arbitration and "go back to the drawing board." Their joint letter was one of thousands submitted to the agency.

Many lenders are still reluctant to give mortgages to borrowers with less-than-pristine credit, yet such loans are far more likely than prime jumbo loans to be bundled into collateral bonds. Sreeni Prabhu of Angel Oak Capital credits banks' behavior and higher interest rates for that reality.

A director at Citizens Independent Bancorp in Logan, Ohio, resigned after members of management chastised him for an email security breach.

New Bancorp in New Buffalo, Mich., has hired Shawna Zawada as controller and principal financial officer, days after Russell Dahl resigned as chief financial officer.

Equifax and TransUnion have stopped selling traditional credit reports, forcing lenders to buy their new, more expensive "trended" data reports that mortgage investors aren't using yet.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced the extension of the Home Affordable Refinancing Program through September 2017 as well as the creation of a new program for those with high loan-to-value ratios.

WASHINGTON — The American Bankers Association has fired back at a White House research note that argued the Dodd-Frank Act was not driving community bank consolidation.