The latest monthly reports from credit card issuers provide more evidence that loss rates will stay abnormally low longer than thought just a few months ago.

Regulators let Synovus acquire a failed bank — its first deal in four years — though it still owes Tarp $968 million. A surprising number of similar deals have occurred in recent years.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray sat silently at a public hearing as a room full of the industry's customers and employees argued that Americans should be allowed to make their own borrowing choices.

At least two startups who demoed at Finovate this week are trying to step in between banks and commercial borrowers in the same way peer to peer lenders already have — with crowdfunding.

Analyze data to tailor offers and draft sales pitches that customers, particularly those visiting branches, will have a hard time refusing.

Four community banks announced Troubled Asset Relief Program redemptions Wednesday. Two were in Missouri and one each in South Carolina and Virginia.

nCino, which sells cloud-based bank operating software, scored a new client in Square 1 Bank of Durham, N.C.

Peoples Bancorp (PEBO) in Marietta, Ohio, has bought three insurance agencies in Jackson, Ohio.

Commerce Bancshares in Kansas City, Mo., has struck a deal for Summit Bancshares of Tulsa that would nearly double its asset base in Oklahoma.

Banks are starving for new revenue sources these days. Some are responding to fierce competition in mainstream lending markets by looking further afield, to financing ventures like improving energy efficiency and the building of manufactured housing. Following are examples of banks that are creating daylight between themselves and their rivals by focusing on unique businesses.

The common-sense steps taken in the bill will help even the playing field between community banks and big financial firms.

Wells Fargo must pay customers $203 million for manipulating debit-card transactions to boost overdraft fees, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled, reinstating a 2010 damage award.

Consumer advocates believe the bounties banks pay to car dealers for steering customers to high-interest loans are abusive. But with a ban likely to spark a political backlash, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is instead seeking to prove the markups are discriminatory.

Since being forced out of Bank of America in 2011, Sallie Krawcheck has been talking a lot about the business case for gender diversity on boards and in top management. With her investment in 85 Broads, she is putting her money where her mouth is — and hopes other women will, too.

Bar Harbor Bancshares (BHB) in Maine has chosen TD Bank (TD) executive Curtis Simard as its next leader.

Cathay General Bancorp (CATY) has agreed to acquire about $40 million of deposits and a Las Vegas branch from SWNB Bancorp, marking Cathay's entrance in the Vegas market.

Lawmakers in both chambers are working to pass a major farm bill that will determine agricultural policy for the next five years, legislation that could have implications for rural lenders.

A shareholder at Regions Financial urged shareholders to exercise "caution" in the election of the bank's 14 board members who are up for re-election at the its annual meeting Thursday.

Central Arizona Bank, a unit of Capitol Bancorp, was set to be shut down with two sister banks last Friday, but a legal challenge bought it a few extra days.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid confirmed Wednesday that the chamber will hold a vote to confirm Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sometime next week.