Most banks that deploy voice authentication require a specific spoken passphrase. Eastern Bank customers can have a normal conversation with call center reps; software in the background compares their voice patterns to a recorded snippet.

It's hard to get consumers and merchants to change their behaviors. But eventually the convenience and well-crafted incentives of mobile payments will prompt people to give up the plastic habit.

Millennials are individuals first and millennials second. Demographers and sociologists may like to group consumers, but when bankers market to the average instead of the individual, it's a losing strategy.

A recent report from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods identified several "challenger banks" that are poised to take market share from the industry's biggest institutions by using niche-focused business models. Here is a sample of the banks singled out by KBW's analysts.

Pinnacle Financial Partners in Nashville, Tenn., has added the president of a Knoxville, Tenn., accounting firm to its board.

WASHINGTON — After months of declining industry and congressional pleas to delay an impending rule combining two mortgage disclosure regimes, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday announced a two-month delay due to an "administrative error."

Six servicers were cited for a range of infractions, including a failure to respond to requests for loan modifications and not doing enough to prevent foreclosures. Punishment was harsh for Wells Fargo and HSBC, which are banned from acquiring mortgage servicing rights and entering into new servicing contracts.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has sued an Ohio auto lender for alleged bullying tactics in trying to collect debts from military personnel.

Home Bancshares in Conway, Ark., has agreed to buy Florida Business BancGroup in Tampa, Fla.

Members of St. James Federal Savings and Loan Association will meet Saturday to vote on whether to convert from a mutual to a stock-owned bank as a prelude to selling itself to Wells Financial. Some believe the vote could set a worrisome precedent.

The CFPB on Wednesday sued an auto loan firm for aggressive debt collection tactics against service members.

Security researchers say criminals are turning away from malware-only attacks and preying on unsuspecting call center reps, merchants and bank-website users with simpler, more traditional schemes.

JPMorgan Chase Vice Chairman James B. "Jimmy" Lee died unexpectedly Wednesday morning, the bank said in a statement from Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon. He was 62.

First Republic Bank in San Francisco has agreed to purchase Constellation Wealth Advisors for about $115 million.

Glenn Moyer, the former banking commissioner of Pennsylvania, has joined a banking risk-management consulting firm.

A Seattle-based company is trying to make it easier for individual investors in peer-to-peer loans to cash out early.

Signature Bank in New York has added former Rep. Barney Frank to its board. The $29 billion-asset company said that Frank filled a seat previously held by Alfred DelBello, a former lieutenant governor of New York who died last month. This is Frank's first appointment to a bank board.

BOK Financial in Tulsa, Okla., and Webster Financial in Waterbury, Conn., each reported that its Tier 1 common equity ratio would remain above regulators' minimum guideline, as regional banks continue to disclose Dodd-Frank Act stress-test results.

Payday lending activity increased in California last year, but the size of loans and fees charged both declined, according to a new report from California's banking regulator.

The settlement by the California agency and debt buyer forgives more than $600,000 in consumer debt. The company did not admit any wrongdoing.