The California Housing Finance Agency is now offering all low- to moderate-income Californians an affordable mortgage loan program that includes down payment assistance and was originally designed for first-time buyers.

The agency has been applauded for efforts to shorten the application process for certain 7(a) loans, though the move has also raised concerns about the potential for loosened underwriting.

When the qualified mortgage rule took effect in January, many predicted the rule would stifle lending to low-income and minority borrowers. But a credit crunch never materialized, thanks to exemptions given to federal mortgage agencies.

Aging board members and bank executives can pose a threat to successful strategic planning, which requires the ability to think decades into the future.

Cambridge Bancorp in Boston is looking for a chief executive to succeed Joseph Roller when he retires next year.

First Financial Bancorp of Cincinnati has pushed back the expected closing date for its acquisitions of First Bexley Bank and Insight Bank, pending a review by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered a New Jersey company, Stonebridge Title Services Inc., to pay $30,000 for paying illegal kickbacks for referrals.

Television financial advisor Suze Orman's prepaid debit card will be discontinued, according to a report in the New York Times.

Regions Financial (RF) in Birmingham, Ala., has split itself into two operating units — a general bank and a corporate bank.

The city of Miami claims in a new lawsuit that JPMorgan Chase & Co. engaged in discriminatory lending practices for years that worsened the foreclosure crisis in minority neighborhoods during the last decade's housing crisis.

SunTrust is expanding its auto-dealer financing business beyond the U.S. Southeast and will offer wholesale and other banking services to dealers in Chicago, Boston and Dallas.

Identifying which borrowers are likely to repay short-term, small-dollar loans could help lower costs for both consumers and the financial services industry.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a new challenge to help expand the technological arsenal that can be used in the battle against illegal phone spammers.

New York officials have created a database of blacklisted lenders, and Bank of America has agreed to use it. Authorities hope that other banks will follow suit.

Irene Dorner did a lot to turn around HSBC's troubled U.S. operations following violations of U.S. anti-money-laundering regulations that led to a record penalty, but successor Patrick Burke and a new U.S. compliance chief will have to pick up the recovery at its midpoint and finish the job.

Six directors at Solera National Bancorp (SLRK) have resigned as the Lakewood, Colo., company remains embroiled in a messy public struggle with its biggest investor.

Smaller banks face a tricky choice with jumbo loans: hold them and face rate risk, or sell them to a bigger bank and risk losing a customer. An unusual arrangement between the FHLB and a REIT could offer community banks a better route.

Discover Financial Services agreed with regulators to bolster its payment systems against money launderers. No financial penalty was imposed.

The United States Court of Appeals has confirmed BancorpSouth's lack of liability in an online banking fraud case, and even granted that the bank may seek to recover attorneys' fees from the victim.

WASHINGTON — A financial education partnership between public libraries and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has skyrocketed to more than 98 library systems in the two months since the pilot program launched.