International money transfers have not enjoyed the improvements in transparency and cost that are benefiting other products. That must change to move the remittance market forward.

B of A executives capped a challenging year by reporting strong consumer and global lending as well as other upbeat fundamentals, but like a lot of their banking peers spent most of their earnings presentation fighting off gloomy questions about the future.

Online lenders like Aprenita, Payability and Pollen VC have all launched within the last 13 months to fill a need they say is not being met by traditional banks, and only partially by venture capitalists and invoice-financing companies.

Wintrust Financial's fourth-quarter earnings fell 7% from a year earlier, to $35.5 million, as a revenue surge failed to offset the higher costs associated with recent acquisitions.

The Minneapolis bank has promoted longtime executive Andrew Cecere to president, a title held by Chairman and CEO Richard Davis for more than a decade.

Consumers say they consider mobile banking unsafe even as they increasingly use it, assuming they can do nothing to protect themselves from the escalating threats. Banks can't afford to be so fatalistic.

In one corner are groups like the Community Home Lenders Association and the major credit union groups, which are hoping the administration will further cut premiums after a reduction a year ago. In the other are the MBA and the ICBA, which argue a cut now would be too soon.

Synovus Financial in Columbus, Ga., reported a higher fourth-quarter profit on stronger interest and fee income.

A number of community banks have gotten into government-backed small-business lending by buying firms or poaching talent. While the business seems lucrative now, there are concerns that too many banks may be jumping into the pool.

Defaults, repossessions and auctions were down 3% last year compared with 2014 and down 62% from a peak in 2010, according to a report released today by RealtyTrac.

TotalBank in Miami said it has promoted Jay Pelham to president, succeeding Luis de la Aguilera, who left the company in December to lead U.S. Century Bank in Doral, Fla.

Labor-intensive cross-marketing programs, which were beyond the scope of small marketing departments, are suddenly feasible thanks to automation.

Mackinac Financial in Manistique, Mich., has agreed to buy First National Bank of Eagle River in Wisconsin.

Overlapping missions and jurisdictions are fueling competition between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, according to former officials at both agencies.

Bank of America Corp., the second-biggest U.S. lender, said profit rose 9.4 percent on gains in fees and declines in expenses.

Idaho Community Action Network (ICAN) on Monday protested what it calls a lack of action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau regarding enacting national standards for payday loan operations and ending uncapped loans.

ACA International filed a lawsuit in July to challenge the Federal Communications Commission’s Declaratory Ruling concerning the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. On Friday, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the FCC filed its answering brief to the case, titled ACA International, et al. v. FCC and U.S.

Still facing revenue challenges, Regions, PNC and U.S. Bank vowed to reduce overhead in 2016. The cuts are less about bolstering short-term returns than funding investments in cutting-edge technologies or new products and services to remain competitive.

Overlapping missions and jurisdictions are fueling competition between the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission, according to former officials at both agencies.

Executives of Wells Fargo, especially CEO John Stumpf, have repeatedly insisted that the economy (and their bank) will be fine despite the collapse in oil prices. But now they are acknowledging efforts to think about what happens if they are wrong.