American Express once again beat out its top competitors in J.D. Power's annual ranking of U.S. credit card customer satisfaction, followed closely by Discover, but Citigroup, Bank of America and HSBC still have room to improve.

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc., the Miami-based investment bank and brokerage, said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Securities America Inc. from Ameriprise Financial Inc. for at least $150 million to add 1,700 financial advisors.

Jeff Gerrish, a lawyer in Memphis who spends a lot of his time advocating on behalf of community banks to federal regulators, sees a thawing in banker-regulator relations, but says it is one born of fatigue rather than enlightenment.

MidSouth Bancorp Inc. in Lafayette, La., has agreed to buy a branch in Tyler, Texas, from Beacon Federal Bancorp Inc.

Access National Corp. in Reston, Va., said Wednesday that it rejected the Treasury Department's offer of $28 million in capital through the Small Business Lending Fund.

Some bankers are withdrawing the applications for the SBLF program after being held back by certain restrictions. Observers question whether the Treasury will deploy most of the funds in time.

Issuers of retail credit cards sought to exit the business en masse during the downturn. Now the industry's appeal is on the rise, along with a dramatic improvement in its performance.

Wells Fargo & Co. is testing a monthly fee with some customers to offset revenue losses it expects on debit card payments. It said earlier this year that it would make changes because of the Fed's decision to cap interchange rates.

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida if finally current on dividends tied to the Troubled Asset Relief Program after missing nine payments to the Treasury Department.

Secure Vault Payments, which lets consumers spend at online merchants without disclosing their bank account details, is expanding into more financial institutions through a deal with the vendor Jwaala.

Last week, the Obama administration, under the leadership of FHFA, HUD and Treasury, and with the support of the Federal Reserve, announced a bold new plan to accomplish what its unsuccessful Hamp program was created to do.

VantageScore, a joint venture of the three credit rating agencies, prevailed against Fair Isaac in court. The ruling said that Fair Isaac does not have exclusive rights to numerical consumer credit scores.

Target's credit card unit earned $171 million for its second quarter ended July 30, benefiting from sharply lower losses on its cards after the financial crisis.

TransUnion's Ezra Becker discusses the underappreciated role consumer deleveraging has played in shrinking credit card balances.

Are you pushing back when you think examiners go too far? How's that working? One Ohio banker tried it, and instead of retribution he got relief.

Parkvale Financial Corp. in Monroeville, Pa., said late Tuesday that it plans to restate financial information for two fiscal years to correct an error tied to deposit insurance.

WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman plans to introduce legislation aimed at jumpstarting the housing market by providing two new enticements to homebuyers.

Investors Bancorp doesn't plan to stop with its deal for Brooklyn Federal. The Short Hills, N.J., mutual thrift would like to do "one or two more" before converting to an all-stock company.

The recent turmoil in the financial markets has not yet altered banks' immediate technology spending, Jack Henry & Associates says, but it "adds to concerns" for their long-term plans.

Capitol Bancorp Ltd. is getting closer to exiting Colorado with an agreement to sell Mountain View Bank of Commerce.