Applications to refinance mortgages returned to highs last seen in February as a new round of record-low contract rates helped drive new business upward by 1.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the week ending June 1.

Third Federal Savings & Loan Association in Cleveland has promoted Chief Retail Officer Meredith S. Weil to the position of chief operating officer, effective July 6.

The banking industry's image is about as awful as it's ever been. But what needs to be done by whom, and at what cost, to fix it? Editor at Large Barb Rehm has some ideas.

Recent proxy fights illustrate how the high-stakes contests are getting ever more expensive for bankers and insurgents alike.

Bad times are driving a large majority of banks to rethink their operating models, a KPMG survey says. Wealth management and technology are priorities, branches may have to be turned into marketing stores, and M&A is still back burner.

LAUREL, Miss. – Central Sunbelt FCU said it has joined CO-OP Network from CO-OP Financial Services.

IMGCAP(1)]

A Kansas banking company that last week raised fresh capital to fuel its growth has struck a deal that would more than double its size.

BNC Bancorp has no immediate plans to exit the program, despite recently raising $73 million from a private placement. CEO Swope Montgomery believes BNC's acquisitions will more than offset the current 5% borrowing rate for the Tarp funds.

Fannie Mae named its general counsel, Timothy Mayopoulos, as its next chief executive after he agreed to a sharp pay cut imposed by the mortgage-finance company's federal regulator.

In April the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a statement that it was adopting the "disparate impact" concept in its enforcement of the anti-discrimination provisions of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. It is doing so in a manner consistent with an Interagency Policy Statement issued in 1994 by the Department of Justice and other federal agencies involved with the enforcement of fair lending laws.

When a California bank took a former employee to court over his insulting statements on the Internet, an appellate court said his speech was protected from prosecution.

Ocwen Financial (OCN) has purchased the commercial servicing rights portfolio of Aurora Bank.

Commercial and multifamily mortgage delinquency rates fell in the first quarter of 2012 for most of the top investor groups except one: commercial mortgage-backed securities.

Recent delays by the CFPB and Treasury point toward a systemic policy malaise that threatens to make the housing recovery a decade-long event.

As head of the Mortgage Bankers Association, David H. Stevens spent the last year warning that excessive and ill-considered regulation could drag down the mortgage market. As the new head of SunTrust Mortgage, he'll have to face that regulation head-on.

The Treasury Department announced Tuesday that it plans to sell off its shares in seven more community banks as part of its ongoing effort to wind down the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

More than 30 state trade associations have joined the Independent Community Bankers of America in urging Congress to extend the Transaction Account Guarantee program, which offers banks unlimited deposit insurance on transaction accounts.

Websites such as Amazon.com are often cited as the gold standard for the online experience, but turning your financial institution website into a carbon copy of a retailer site is neither practical nor wise. No financial institution can be, or should be, just like Amazon, yet there are some strategies and tactics that banks can borrow from online retailers, particularly when it comes to cross-selling.

An effort is gaining momentum to require banks that want municipal business to lend more in low-income neighborhoods. And it's not just mega-banks being targeted — smaller banks are seen as fairing worse in this type of lending.