A N.Y. car dealership charged with the unlawful sale of credit repair and identity theft prevention services agreed Thursday to settle allegations brought by state regulators.

HMN Financial in Rochester, Minn., has agreed to buy a branch from Deerwood Bank in Deerwood, Minn.

County Bancorp in Manitowoc, Wis., has agreed to buy Fox River Valley Bancorp in Appleton, Wis., for about $29 million.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.

The auto lender, a unit of the Spanish banking giant Banco Santander, repeatedly reassured investors that it has a handle on the subprime business.

The agency's board, however, delayed action on a contentious proposal to increase a key population threshold for determining fields of membership in metropolitan markets. Bankers remain on alert, however, because the agency has indicated an interest in revisiting the issue.

Embattled online lender CashCall has paid nearly $2 million in restitution and fines for allegedly deceiving and overcharging borrowers, California's Department of Business Oversight announced.

WASHINGTON — The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Tuesday will release results of the banking industry's performance for the third quarter.

First Bancshares in Hattiesburg, Miss., has agreed to buy Mortgage Connection in Jackson, Miss.

California regulators have approved a request from private-equity firm Carpenter & Co. to raise capital for a new state-chartered bank.

Avidbank Holdings in Palo Alto, Calif., has raised $12 million through a private placement of debt.

Overall U.S. auto debt surged to $1.05 trillion in the third quarter, and the rise in subprime auto loan originations has heightened the New York Fed's concerns about that market.

County Bancorp in Manitowoc, Wis., has selected former Kimberly-Clark executive Kathi Seifert to be a director.

The industry deserves credit for rebuilding the Deposit Insurance Fund after the crisis, but victory is far from achieved in preparing agency reserves for the next crisis.

More banks are looking to buy commercial loans for reasons ranging from a dearth of organic opportunities to a need to diversify their asset mix. That surge in demand is creating an imbalance that benefits banks that have been able to make more loans.

Prospect Mortgage, a Sherman Oaks, Calif., nonbank lender, has agreed to pay $10.1 million in borrower restitution and penalties for violating federal and state laws, California's Department of Business Oversight said Thursday.

Western Union will pay $8.5 million to settle allegations that it violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by sending unsolicited text messages asking consumers to opt in to receive regular updates from the company.

Forward-thinking companies could get a reputation lift from being first out of the gate with interesting apps. Banks could also be first to help protect customers from the inevitable privacy leaks that the IoT will make possible.

Did men get more than their fair share of the managing director promotions at Goldman Sachs, and what does Barbie have to do with a Fed trailblazer? Also, JPMorgan Chase's Mary Callahan Erdoes isn't getting on the robo-advisory bandwagon and women talk about "systematic sexism" in the journalism and entertainment fields.

A Federal Trade Commission leader opened the agency's third debt collection dialogue event in Atlanta on Wednesday by highlighting the agency’s aggressive approach to collection enforcement.