The Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering reforms to force-placed insurance aimed at giving the public a better deal. So why isn't it letting the public in on its planning?

Bank investors may be softening their antipathy for long earn-back periods. When Union First Market Bankshares promised five years of dilution – but a big boost to earnings – from its deal for StellarOne, its stock declined only a little.

Barry Sommers, the new head of JPMorgan Chase's consumer bank, spent most of his career selling wealth-management services. Now he says he's ready to serve the bank's less-affluent customers.

Community banks can't cost cut their way to prosperity, though it certainly is a step in the right direction, a recent Fiserv study found.

PNC Financial Services Group is latest bank that plans to do away with free checking.

A top executive at Heartland Financial in Dubuque, Iowa, is leaving for a job in the manufacturing sector.

A sales pitch from Bank of America implies that its refinancing offer is in the borrower's best interest. Never mind that it would raise the customer's interest rate and add 10 years to the overall life of the loan.

Pennsylvania Dutch country could get the first de novo bank to open in the U.S. in more than two years.

The $120 billion-asset company has made a tender offer for certain debt of Union Planters Preferred Funding, a REIT subsidiary that it then plans to dissolve, it said Monday.

The $168 million-asset asset lender is offering as many as 500,000 shares at $10 per share, it announced Monday. The stock closed Friday at $9.85 a share; it had risen 1.5%, to $10, at midday Monday.

West Bancorp. (WTBA) in Des Moines, Iowa, is taking advantage of low interest rates to buy back a chunk of its stock.

Research indicates education from a counselor who helps homeowners understand the terms of their mortgages should be part of the formula for sustainable homeownership.

The banking unit of FNB United in Asheboro, N.C., has been freed from a regulatory order and has completed its integration of the Bank of Granite.

Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) has hired Jeff Sturm, a financial technology veteran most recently with Fiserv, to find ways to improve customer service and contain costs.

Meta Financial Group (CASH) in Sioux Falls, S.D., plans to raise up to $20 million by selling common stock.

Deloitte Corporate Finance has acquired McColl Partners, a middle-market investment bank founded by retired Bank of America Chief Executive Hugh McColl.

Wells Fargo (WFC) has been acquitted by a jury of giving kickbacks to a real estate firm in exchange for mortgage business.

Capital One Financial (COF) is on a mission to become one of the nation's top players in equipment-financing as has roughly doubled the size the division over the last two months.

The constant pillorying of banks can hardly inspire public confidence in them. Regulators should focus, instead, on peer comparisons and the encouragement of effective policies and procedures.

Union First Market Bankshares in Richmond, Va., has agreed to acquire StellarOne in Charlottesville, Va.