Virtual currency is prevalent in gaming, where users can deploy credits to continue using favorite social games or to buy virtual goods and powerups. But that's likely just the start. According to several market reports, virtual commerce is a $2.2 billion industry that's projected to grow to a whopping $6 billion in fewer than five years.

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The bureau is still the lead agency, but Dodd-Frank's ban on certain harmful practices known as UDAAP could give other agencies a significant role through their enforcement authority over community banks.

Institutional Shareholder Service backs the Renton, Wash., company's director nominees. Dissident shareholder Joseph Stilwell is trying to get his general counsel added to the board.

StellarOne (STEL) in Charlottesville, Va., is planning to eliminate about 4% of its workforce, or 34 full-time jobs, as part of an overall cost-cutting effort that it says would save the company up to $2.4 million a year.

WASHINGTON – Dissatisfaction is growing in Congress with the Obama administration's decision to leave mortgage investors out of talks that led to a $25 billion settlement.

Sometimes there are more ways to pay for a bank than in cash or stock. Just ask Citizens South, which extracted job protections and a charitable donation for its local community before agreeing to sell to Park Sterling.

A big trading loss at Chase has some community bank CEOs discussing a second tier of regulation for small banks. Other CEOs believe the snafu is yet another black eye for the banking industry. And some point out that the loss is fairly insignificant to the New York company.

Both sides of a bank deal need to meet with their regulators well ahead of announcing it in today's complicated world.

Continuing its rapid expansion in mortgage banking, Cardinal Financial (CFNL) in McLean, Va., announced Monday that its home lending subsidiary, George Mason Mortgage, has opened an office in the Baltimore suburbs.

Credit and debit sales volumes have been crisscrossing over the past 17 months, but without an obvious explanation.

After Ally put its ResCap mortgage unit into bankruptcy on Monday, ResCap CEO Tom Marano discussed the future of the unit’s assets and staff in an interview.

The abrupt end of Scott Thompson's short term as CEO of Yahoo calls the company's payments plans into question.

The investment group Castine Capital Management has been sharply reducing its ownership stake in First California Financial Group (FCAL) even as it has been pressuring the company to sell itself.

Park Sterling Corporation in Charlotte, N.C., announced Monday that it is buying Citizens South Bank in Gastonia, N.C., in a deal that would instantly double its size.

That $2 billion trading loss is just last week's headline. Is Chase so big and complicated that no CEO could apply, teach and enforce decency and the smell test?

Some banks are still finding ways to offer incentives for every card swipe, even if traditional debit rewards programs are dead in the water, says the head of Sovereign Bank's cards and payments division.

Ally Financial Inc.'s troubled mortgage subsidiary filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy early Monday, potentially paving the way for Ally to sever itself from substantial litigation that has been a drag on its other operations and prevented it from repaying the remainder of its government bailout.

Former PayPal president Scott Thompson has left Yahoo, which he has led as CEO since January.