At the bailout law's three-year anniversary, the Small Business Lending Fund has offered some banks a way out. But with that escape hatch now closed, roughly 400 small banks remain stuck in the program.

The biggest outside investor in Cardinal Bankshares has ramped up his fight against the company, creating a website and calling on shareholders to force management to sell.

A man in the Midwest was accused of attacking an ATM so fiercely that the machine was dislodged from its base and knocked to the ground.

Bank of America Corp., the largest bank by assets, plans to start charging its checking customers $5 per month, or $60 annually, if they use their debit cards to make purchases. The fees will go into effect early next year.

First Tennessee Bank is offering customers the ability to make deposits by taking pictures of their checks with their iPhones.

WSFS Financial Corp. in Wilmington, Del., said Thursday that it has created a loan program in which it will offer discounted rates to small businesses that use the funds to create jobs.

Whereas most financial companies use Facebook and Twitter solely for branding and customer service, some have taken the next step and designed financial products that are meant to be interacted with primarily through social networks and online games.

The overall level of current and performing mortgage loans fell slightly in the second quarter as early stage delinquencies ticked up, according to the latest mortgage metrics report.

Irene Dorner, president and chief executive of HSBC's U.S. bank, is looking beyond the sales of her credit cards business and 195 upstate New York branches and planning to expand HSBC's operations in California and the West Coast.

Boston Federal Reserve Bank president Eric Rosengren wants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to do more to refinance homeowners and address housing market problems.

Home Federal Bancorp Inc. in Nampa, Idaho, is shuttering six branches, streamlining its management, refinancing its debt and shifting mortgage loan originations to a third party as part of a broad restructuring that it says will reduce overhead by $3.6 million over the next 12 months.

The vast majority of companies continue to fall short of complying with the Payment Card Industry data security standard during their initial audit, with only 21% getting a passing grade.

Applications for new mortgages jumped 9.3% for the week that ended Sept. 23, a sign that ultralow rates are finally spurring new business activity.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network said there has been an 88% year-over-year increase in mortgage loan fraud suspicious activity reports filed in the second quarter.

The lowest mortgage rates on record, coupled with a new Federal Reserve program to reduce them further, are turning housing bears like Baker into optimists.

Foreclosure starts reached 217,955 units in August, an 18% sequential jump, and the first time since March that the reading was north of 200,000, according to new figures compiled by the Hope Now alliance.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating several residential servicing shops for abusive practices — including inaccurate payment records and charging excessive fees — according to FTC associate director Joel Winston.

Card association will allow European Visa cardholders to send money to each other by phone.

The Treasury Department announced the last group of banks that will receive capital under the Small Business Lending Fund, which distributed more than $4 billion to 332 banks, falling far short of industry expectations.

ECB Bancorp is set to receive nearly $80 million in capital by mid-November. The $942 million-asset company is laying out a three-pronged strategy of acquisitions, de novo branch expansion and organic growth to get to $3 billion to $5 billion in the next few years.