SP Bancorp in Plano, Texas, has applied for a state bank charter. The $300 million-asset company's SharePlus Bank is currently chartered as a federal thrift.

The $1.1 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that its bank had been released from a memorandum of understanding with the Federal Reserve Board.

Clifton Savings Bancorp said Paul Aguggia, 50, will take over as the $1 billion-asset company's chairman, CEO and president on Jan. 1.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a stark warning Wednesday to banks and other firms that exchange information with consumer reporting agencies, saying such companies will be heavily scrutinized for how they resolve customer disputes.

The recent leadership shuffle at Banesco USA may have resulted from problems in its compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act, according to a report in the South Florida Business Journal.

Under new rules, health insurance companies must let consumers pay their monthly premiums with general purpose prepaid debit cards.

Michael Kubacki plans to give up the CEO role at the $3 billion-asset company and its bank after its annual meeting in April 2014.

Four people in Wichita, Kan., have pleaded guilty to participating in a mortgage fraud that cost lenders more than $221,000.

Lenders continued to face challenges with loan growth in the second quarter as interest rates increased, a Federal Reserve Board report said Wednesday.

Banks in general are paying departing executives less money. But some, including Sterling Bancorp in New York, are still approving multimillion-dollar parachutes.

Machias also agreed to acquire the assets at the six banks, including loans and real estate, and about $75 million of deposits, the companies said when they announced the sale in July.

A U.S. district court has halted a Tampa, Fla.-based operation that promised to help consumers get payday loans. Instead of loans, the defendants used consumers’ personal financial information to debit their bank accounts in increments of $30 without their authorization, the FTC alleged.

The Dodd-Frank Act aimed to make the mortgage market safer by requiring originators to hold onto a portion of the home loans they generate. American Banker Washington bureau chief Rob Blackwell argues that under heavy industry pressure regulators have failed to live up to the spirit of the law and gutted the provision.

The $2.6 billion-asset Community & Southern has agreed to pay $11.80 per common share of Verity, the companies announced Wednesday.

OmniAmerican Bancorp, the Texas lender whose stock has more than doubled since going public in 2010, is exploring a sale, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Customers tend to "hire smilers." When otherwise comparable alternatives exist, people gravitate toward businesses that make them feel welcomed and appreciated.

John Stumpf, chairman and chief executive of Wells Fargo, wrote an impassioned column for American Banker last week emphasizing the importance of community banks to the national economy and calling for Washington to unburden them from a stifling regulatory regime. Editors discuss why big banks have so much riding on the survival of their smaller rivals.

Republic First Bancorp (FRBK) in Philadelphia has settled a lawsuit for $2 million, which may delay its ability to claim a large deferred-tax allowance.

Steven Antonakes, the long-time acting No. 2 at the CFPB, has now permanently assumed that position.

A new outsourcing model breaks work up into tiny pieces and farms it out to large groups of freelancers, taking advantage of "cognitive surplus."