The appeals court ruling against MERS that caused the GSEs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reinitiate foreclosures on more than 1,600 Michigan properties was overturned by the state's highest court this week.

The Barclays unit in charge of U.S. bank deals has overcome adversity, from the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 to the defection of some important talent last year, and worked on some of the notable deals of the year.

Addressing the home mortgage meltdown, Congressman Scott Garrett recently introduced legislation that is, as American Banker put it, "designed to draw the private sector back to the secondary-mortgage market after the troubled GSEs are terminated."

Banks, the FDIC, and insurers are set to fight over whether the vague terms of director & officer liability insurance put insurers on the hook for FDIC claims against failed bank execs.

Regulators will eventually release banks from the penalty box of formal enforcement actions. For now, banks can expect informal agreements to serve as a provisional step to freedom.

Shouldn't it be a given that an agency staffed with green examiners and tasked with enforcing new rules will communicate with banks before slapping them with regulatory orders?

Brad Dinsmore and Jerome Lienhard will assume the duties of C.T. Hill, who worked four decades at the Atlanta company and some of its forerunners.

In a new paper, Karen Shaw Petrou, a leading financial services analyst, outlines flaws with new capital and liquidity requirements, and offers policymakers a way to simplify the process.

WASHINGTON — Consumer advocates are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to provide greater protections for prepaid debit card accounts.

Hampton Roads Bankshares Inc. in Norfolk, Va., has named a special assets executive, Denny P. Cobb, chief credit officer for one of its banking units.

The hotel industry successfully introduced "resort fees." The airlines gradually added baggage-handling fees. Cell phone and cable TV marketers steadily increase fees for expanding services. But when banks tried to introduce a $5 monthly debit fee, consumers revolted.

PayPal has developed an application for making person-to-person payments over Facebook.

The Treasury Department said Friday it netted $12.21 million from the sale of warrants to buy stock in 17 financial firms, including banks such as Maryland-based Eagle Bancorp Inc. and Indiana-based Horizon Bancorp.

The federal government could avoid many unnecessary bank failures by making targeted preferred equity investments in community banks with a Camels 3 rating.

Shareholders of Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. in Lititz, Pa., and Tower Bancorp Inc. in Harrisburg, Pa., have approved the companies' proposed merger.

Most of the transactions in November have involved the sale of small, closely held banks to much bigger players. The buyers want to spend excess cash and expand on the cheap.

WASHINGTON — The nominee to run the Federal Housing Administration Thursday said she opposes extending higher limits on federally-insured loans.

Citigroup Inc. renewed a multiyear deal to continue issuing private-label credit cards for Sunoco Inc. customers, the companies said Thursday.

WASHINGTON - A group of House Democrats is pressuring Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to allow a vote on the confirmation of a director for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The Federal Reserve has banned a former executive of Security Bank in Tulsa, Okla., from the banking industry.