Southcoast Financial Corp. in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., reported a fourth-quarter loss of $4.8 million, or nearly five times larger than what it lost a year earlier.

Over the past couple of years, the seemingly dull topic of time management has become one that senior managers are showing increased interest in discussing with their teams. I suspect this has as least something to do with the fact that we are asking smaller and smaller branch teams to accomplish more with less.

Banks have been loath to cede any ground to carriers and handset makers in designing mobile wallets, so it seems out of character for JPMorgan Chase and Capital One to support Isis, the carrier-controlled entrant in the mobile payments race.

Now that the agency overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has revealed the reasoning behind its stubborn opposition to mortgage principal reduction, the problems with its argument are clear.

An appeals court has handed down a potentially important decision for Bank of America, returning the bank's landmark $8.5 billion mortgage-bond settlement to state court after some investors had pushed to have it heard in federal court.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development alleged Monday that Bank of America imposed "unnecessary and burdensome" requirements on borrowers who relied on disability income to qualify for home loans.

International Bancshares Corp. in Laredo, Texas, reported that its fourth-quarter earnings fell less than 1% from a year earlier, to $27 million, as both income and expenses declined.

Warren Buffett, who controls the biggest shareholding of the No. 1 U.S. mortgage lender, said banks were victimized by some homeowners who refinanced their loans before getting evicted.

Fannie Mae is offering to sell nearly 2,500 foreclosed properties to investors as part of a new federal initiative to aid the housing market by selling off distressed properties in bulk, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said Monday.

An activist investor resigned from the board of First Financial Northwest after just five weeks when his demands for austerity measures were tabled. The investor, who is now planning a proxy fight, had asked that the company serve only hard candy at annual meetings, among other demands.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has decided to shift course before finalizing changes to the good faith estimate form, a project the bureau has been working on diligently since last summer.

Regulators have bombarded mortgage servicers with a flurry of new regulations and government programs in the past year, heaping on tasks and costly reviews. Now they're asking to hear the mortgage companies' complaints.

For a digital wallet to work, the merchant’s point-of-sale system should have the same applications as the phone supporting the wallet. To ensure that consistency, VeriFone says its Paymedia universal acceptance platform will make that connection regardless of wallet provider or mobile network.

Flagstar Bancorp Inc. reported $29.1 million more in losses for the fourth quarter and full year after agreeing to pay up to $133 million to settle claims regarding loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration.

Extending the law that provides unlimited deposit insurance on non-interest bearing demand deposits would send a signal that just maybe the industry is not fully healthy and still needs support.

Billionaire Warren Buffett said Brian T. Moynihan's efforts to fix Bank of America Corp. will boost the value of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s $5 billion investment in the lender.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development said Monday that it has charged Bank of America Corp. with discriminating against disabled home buyers by asking them for medical information and proof of federal disability income.

JPMorgan Chase, Capital One and Barclays will enable their customers to use a mobile-payments service being developed by several wireless carriers starting this summer.

Prosperity Bancshares Inc. in Houston has struck another deal in Texas, announcing Monday that it would buy American State Financial Corp. in Lubbock for about $528 million in cash and stock.

The Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh announced that it intends to convert from a federally chartered thrift supervised by the OCC to a state-chartered thrift to be supervised by New York State Department of Financial Services.