WashingtonFirst Bankshares in Reston, Va., has agreed to buy direct mortgage lender 1st Portfolio Holding Corp. in Fairfax, Va.

The consumer watchdog says it is taking a closer look at various practices associated with student loan servicing as other regulators and analysts grow increasingly wary about the vast amount of non-dischargeable debt in the economy.

Abid Gilani, a Wells Fargo senior vice president, was one of the victims in the derailment of an Amtrak train outside of Philadelphia on Tuesday.

SVB Financial Group in Santa Clara, Calif., has appointed a former U.S. Treasury official to its board.

During a House hearing, marketplace lenders suggested that the U.S. government follow the lead of the U.K., which has set up a separate regulatory regime for the online industry.

With support from Bank of America, a nonprofit lender is trying to revitalize Detroit by offering no-down-payment mortgages at up to 150% of a home’s assessed value. The idea is to provide borrowers with enough cash to buy run-down homes and fix them up, and if the program works as promised it could prove to be a template for lending in other cities — like Baltimore — that have large swaths of boarded-up homes.

Bank of America's Irish unit shifted $8.7 billion of capital to its U.K. parent last year as it continued to shrink Irish operations and move assets to London.

Chicago officials are scrambling to salvage short-term credit lines and liquidity arrangements after Moody's Investors Service downgraded its bonds, which triggered events in the city's credit contracts allowing banks to demand as much as $2.2 billion.

Global financial inclusion efforts have made big strides, but documentation requirements continue to hinder access to financial services, and women and the poor remain disproportionately underserved, according to the World Bank's annual study.

U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Wednesday received a letter from regulators in 11 states expressing concerns about information provided to students affected by the closure of campuses operated by Corinthian Colleges Inc.

U.S. consumers borrowed more in the first quarter to pay for education and automobiles but their overall debt burden remained mostly flat, according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The financial-technology explosion, or bubble, depending on one's viewpoint, continues.

Nearly 100% of all urban riots in America have occurred where the market economy either failed or didn't exist to begin with. Banks are well positioned to help bring economic opportunity to underserved neighborhoods and make free enterprise work for all.

A new study on student loans runs counter to the popular belief that rising student loan debt is hurting the ability of young adults to access credit.

Two mobile phone companies reached a $158 million settlement with federal and state regulators to resolve allegations that they added third-party service charges to consumers’ telephone bills that were not authorized by consumers.

Mitek on Tuesday rolled out a new imaging technology for financial services companies called Photo Verify. It lets bank customers take a smartphone photo of their driver's license to verify their identity.

Fifth Third Bancorp revised downward its first-quarter profit by 6%, or 2 cents per share, after the Cincinnati company booked a $30 million impairment on aircraft leases.

First Bank in Hamilton, N.J., has opened its first office in Pennsylvania.

Many lenders shy away from adjusting monthly payments based on struggling borrowers' income for fear of losing too much money, but the Education Department's expansion of such plans for student loans and new data-crunching products have reframed the longtime discussion.

Triumph Bancshares in Memphis says it has been mistakenly contacted by customers of Triumph Bancorp in Dallas, and has concluded that the Triumph moniker isn't big enough for both institutions. It's hoping a lawsuit will force the Texas bank to change its name.