WASHINGTON — Key congressional backers of a 2009 law that strengthened consumer protections for credit-card users are now concerned that the Federal Reserve Board has gone too far with regulations that could restrict credit to stay-at-home mothers.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, who last week filed a lawsuit against Ally Financial alleging that the firm pursued foreclosures illegally, is now asking Congress to investigate the firm's conduct.

First Niagara's plan to pay for nearly 200 HSBC branches has diminished the deal's promise, put new burdens on the bank and its investors and lowered CEO John Koelmel's profile on Wall Street.

The Treasury Department on Wednesday said it may permanently reduce incentive payments for JPMorgan Chase unless it makes much-needed improvements to its performance in the Home Affordable Modification Program.

Three state banking commissioners — Mark Kaufman of Maryland, James Cooper of Indiana and John Ducrest of Louisiana — said Wednesday that heightened regulatory, economic and policy concerns are deterring worthy state-chartered banks from winning big investors.

Despite Verizon Wireless' talk of security concerns with Google's mobile wallet, its decision to deny the payment app a place on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone may have more to do with money.

BofI Holding

Many merchant-funded rewards companies try to entice bank credit or debit card holders with offers in their online statements. Two vendors are teaming up to bring those offers to the broader Web.

On the eve of a key Senate vote on the nomination of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Democratic supporters sought to turn up the heat on their entrenched Republican colleagues.

Credit-card lenders are unlikely to achieve the profit and revenue levels reached before the recession despite industrywide improvements in loan delinquency and charge-off rates, Ken Chenault, American Express Co.'s top executive, said Wednesday.

Four reasons Verizon's smackdown of Google Wallet is bad for banks and consumers.

Equity Bank in Andover, Kan., and University National Bank in Lawrence, Kan., have terminated their deal to merge.

Lower failure activity drives spending decline, but agency adds resources for Dodd-Frank implementation.

Executive vice president Paul Kadin related some of the company's strategy for becoming more relevant at a marketing conference yesterday.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will report investment-banking revenue essentially flat with the third quarter, while mortgage-banking results will slip and credit cards will improve, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon is expected to say later Wednesday.

Citigroup Inc. has started job cuts this quarter that will affect nearly 4,500 people, chief executive Vikram Pandit said on Tuesday.

Back in May of 2007 my company started working on a documentary, "Foreclosure Diaries," detailing a crisis that was only beginning to make itself felt. We spent time in what was then the epicenter of the foreclosure crisis; a devastated neighborhood in Cleveland known as Slavic Village. Stripped bare of habitable housing, this once bustling blue collar area was an eerie tableaux of vacant, ramshackle homes; allowed to deteriorate by outside investors who had bought and sold foreclosures, en masse, aiming to profit from a quick flip to other sets of investors; all to feed the endless appetite of Wall Street's securitization magog.

California and Nevada will jointly investigate mortgage fraud at U.S. banks, attorneys general from the two states said.

The extra $108 million of nonperforming assets is not a problem, BMO's chief Bill Downe says in an interview in discussing the Canadian company's integration of its recent U.S. acquisition.