Washington's newest super-agency, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, sprang into life in July. That bureau was granted remarkable powers by Congress. Consumers and businesses alike will depend on the stability and effectiveness of the new bureau. However, Congress unwittingly may have infected the bureau with the equivalent of a latent computer virus that could damage the CFPB's ability to function, and shatter the expectations of its supporters.

Monthly reports show that improvements in credit card performance are leveling off, presaging an end to reserve releases that have propped up bank earnings. The graphics here show delinquencies and chargeoffs for the Big Six.

The Minneapolis bank managed to grow loans and revenue by avoiding overly aggressive pricing.

One third of the low-income households who closed an account between 2009 and 2010 cited hidden or expected fees as their reason for leaving their banks, according to a report released Tuesday by a division of The Pew Charitable Trusts.

TD Retail Card Services in Mahwah, N.J., said on Wednesday that it will develop and administer a private-label credit card program for retailer Ashley Furniture Industries Inc.

Popular Inc. in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday reported a decline in quarterly earnings due to fewer one-time gains and an increase it credit costs.

Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc. in Nashville, Tenn., reported a massive spike in third-quarter results due to the reversal of a deferred tax asset valuation.

Colony Bankcorp Inc. in Fitzgerald, Ga., eked out a third-quarter profit, though it also announced Wednesday that its president and chief executive had resigned.

With the introduction of Wag bank, Jeff Stephens is trying to create a direct bank for pet lovers — a concept that failed 10 years ago in different hands. Wag, the bank for dog owners, is the first of what Stephens plans as a series of niche banks focused on affinity groups.

M&T Bank Corp.'s third-quarter earnings fell 4.6% on merger-related charges as the regional bank continued to reduce the amount of loans written off.

Rockwall Bancshares Inc., a Texas startup, has hired Eric Anderson as its chief executive. He had been an executive with American National Bank of Texas.

Elouise Cobell, a member of the Blackfeet tribe who founded the first Native-American-owned bank and later was the lead plaintiff in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the federal government, died Sunday at 65 of complications from cancer.

ROCKY HILL, Conn. – Nutmeg State FCU will open its first grocery store branch inside the Newington Price Chopper supermarket on Monday, its sixth Connecticut branch.

WOODBRIDGE, Va. – Belvoir FCU said it is opening a new branch inside the Base Realignment and Closure Act headquarters, its second branch opened to accommodate new Department of Defense personnel moved here under the base closings restructuring.

Renasant Corp. in Tupelo, Miss., said its third-quarter earnings rose 13.5% from a quarter earlier, to $6.5 million, after the company recorded $5 million in securities gains.

U.S. home prices may get a boost from an unlikely source: a pickup in sales of properties in default before they reach the stage where they are repossessed by the bank and sold.

Fulton Financial reported third-quarter results that were slightly better than expected as its loan-loss provision continued to decline, beating the average analysts estimate by a penny.

The bank has little choice but to shrink itself through asset sales and layoffs, but the process is slow, demoralizing and no answer to future growth.

Driven by improved loan demand, ServisFirst Bancshares Inc. in Birmingham, Ala., reported Monday that its third-quarter income rose 25% from a year earlier, to $6 million.

During testimony on Capitol Hill, the Treasury secretary faces criticism from members of both parties over a slow-moving, smaller-than-expected initiative to boost lending to small businesses.