Washington Federal of Seattle is bulking up in Oregon with an agreement to buy South Valley Bancorp of Klamath Falls for up to $72.7 million in cash and stock.

Western Capital in Boise, Idaho, is expanding into neighboring Oregon with a deal to acquire the $104 million-asset Northwest Bank in Lake Oswego.

BillMyParents made a strong course correction when it chose to abandon its inventive online parent-billing payment system for a more conventional product: plastic cards.

PayPal has recast its offerings for small merchants, a move it says builds on its recent launch of the PayPal Here portable card reader.

The Durbin amendment did not so much make the economics of low value payments unsustainable as reveal the fundamental truth that they were unsustainable to begin with.

MANSFIELD, Texas – Texas Trust CU has opened a new branch in Grand Prairie and is planning to open another one in Mansfield.

Nancy and Ray are day-trippers, but their usual destination is not a historical or cultural attraction. Instead, they scour the highways and byways looking for ATMs lacking proper fee-notice signs. When they find one, they make a cash withdrawal, take a picture, and file a class-action lawsuit. And they are not alone.

Southwest Bancorp (OKSB) in Stillwater, Okla., has hired a search firm to help it find a successor for its president and chief executive, Rick Green, who is retiring.

Mercantile Bank (MBWM) of Grand Rapids, Mich., has repurchased about $10.5 million of the preferred stock it issued to the Treasury Department as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

More banks are looking to cut costs by selling off branches built during the real estate boom. Thankfully, there are still banks with capital and a desire to pick and choose assets and bargain prices, helping to fuel the market.

ING Direct USA, the online bank recently acquired by Capital One Financial Corp. (COF), is exiting from the wholesale mortgage business.

A spokeswoman for Capital One, the owner of ING Direct, has confirmed that ING Mortgage has left the wholesale channel.

The National Fair Housing Alliance said Wednesday it plans to file complaints against several banks for consistent disparities in the way they maintain homes in minority neighborhoods compared to white areas.

First Southern Bank in Boca Raton, Fla., announced Wednesday that its president, Lynne Wines, has added the title of chief executive officer and has been elected to its holding company's board of directors.

An ailing Milwaukee community bank that needs to bolster its capital levels is about to receive a significant cash infusion from a prominent local family.

Some lenders say the change will curtail abuses by consumers who try to hide debts. Others fear FHA's new guidelines will constrain credit just when the housing market needs it.

American Express (AXP) has begun removing its prepaid gift cards from shelves in New Jersey due to a law that requires retailers to collect ZIP codes from purchasers at the point of sale.

The prepaid card marketer Green Dot (GDOT) has completed its acquisition of the location-based deals company Loopt.

Barry Sloane of Newtek Business Services explains why banks are referring customers to his nonbank lender.