Most banks appear to be coping well with the CFPB's ability-to-repay rule for mortgages, but the burden is falling harder on community banks. A new proposal that would allow more small lenders to grant home loans to borrowers with high levels of debt could help.

Banks hurt by the Target data breach two years ago will not be able to block a settlement they consider unfair, a judge ruled Thursday.

A Vermont consumer protection bill that would regulate the rent-to-own industry and temporarily ban lawsuit loan companies from operating in the state passed in the Vermont House on Friday.

First Commonwealth Bank in Indiana, Pa., has agreed to buy First Community Bank in Columbus, Ohio, for about $15 million in cash.

Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank by assets, said the U.S. Justice Department declined to prosecute the bank after a probe into rigging of the London Interbank Offered Rate.

An appeals court ruled Friday that the use of official letterhead from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s office is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

A group of small banks and credit unions could not persuade a judge to block the settlement Target and MasterCard reached last month that would reimburse banks on the card network $19 million for losses related to the retailer's breach.

Flushing Financial in Uniondale, N.Y., has sold three branch properties in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Top-performing community banks have found different ways to provide double-digit returns, despite numerous challenges facing the banking industry.

Looking past standard gauges of return on equity and return on assets, bank investors have wide opinions on what makes a bank a high-performing institution relative to peers.

A number of this year's top-performing banks have been able to ride the highs and lows of the economic cycle to still produce long-term returns to investors.

What makes for a high-performing bank? We take an in-depth look at what drove profitability for the institutions at the top of our annual rankings, all of which are based on three-year average returns on equity. See the list of banks and thrifts with under $2 billion in assets or the mid-tiers with $2 billion to $10 billion of assets. Stay tuned as those with $10 billion to $50 billion of assets are still to come.

Rates are low and compliance costs are rising. But banks with $2 billion or less in assets still have momentum in several key areas, based on data compiled by Capital Performance Group.

The Illinois Department of Financial & Professional Regulation closed the $90 million-asset Edgebrook Bank in Chicago on Friday.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Department of Justice are taking a renewed interest in redlining, the practice of lenders charging more for products or excluding altogether minorities within certain geographic areas — and their findings may be surprising.

Todd Barnhart, head of retail banking at PNC Financial Services Group, discusses the conversion of branches to emphasize digital banking and why it's good to teach consumers to better manage their own accounts, even at the expense of fee revenue in the short term.

CertusBank's chief executive, who joined the Greenville, S.C., company after its founders were fired last year, has left his post due to a medical issue.

Visa, the world's largest payments network, is in preliminary talks to buy former subsidiary Visa Europe Ltd. in a deal that may be valued at as much as $20 billion, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Trading of securities backed by Fannie, Freddie and Ginnie is down sharply since the beginning of the year. Bankers' concerns about capital and rates are among the reasons, and the problem may ultimately make the underlying market for mortgages less liquid.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including how convenience may help banks beat out Silicon Valley and whether community banks can reduce their regulatory burden on their own.