To make redeeming points easier for cardholders, Chase has adapted its core processing system to directly accept Amazon reward points.

NorthEast Community Bancorp Inc. is ready to make a gutsy move — an aggressive push into Boston that also involves originating its first single-family mortgages in roughly two decades.

Two New England thrifts have beefed up their commercial-lending operations by hiring teams of bankers from recently acquired banks.

First Place Financial Corp. said this week that it has launched an audit of its 2009 results and that it now operating under a cease-and-desist order from the Office of Thrift Supervision.

Driven by improved credit quality and double-digit increases in bank card and trust fees, Commerce Bancshares in Kansas City, Mo., reported a profit of $69 million in the second quarter, up 16% from the same period a year earlier.

Peer-to-peer loan facilitator Lending Club Corp. says a record $20 million of consumer loans were funded through its website in June, bringing the total amount of loans originated to more than $300 million since 2007.

Bank of Ozarks Inc. in Little Rock posted record earnings in the second quarter after acquisitions of two failed banks helped boost net income by more than 360%.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon talked up the housing market's prospects, downplayed his bank's exposure to Europe and urged parties in Washington to resolve the standoff over the debt ceiling Thursday.

NBT Bancorp Inc. of Norwich, N.Y., is expanding into western Massachusetts with a deal to purchase four branches from Legacy Bancorp of Pittsfield, Mass.

Improved asset quality, lower credit costs and gains on investment securities powered Washington Federal Inc. in Seattle to a $30.1 million profit in the quarter that ended June 30, an increase of 138% over the same period in 2010.

William Ferguson, the former owner of Bush & Kennedy Inc., a Baton Rouge, La.-based collection agency, has been charged with bank fraud and aggravated identity theft that allegedly cost Hancock Bank more than $126,000.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine filed a lawsuit against Diversified Real Estate Consultants LLC (DREC), a foreclosure rescue company based in Florida.

Consumer credit card debt fell 10% during the first half of the year and 17% from a year ago, and now totals $6,472, according to data Credit Karma released Wednesday. Credit scores held steady since the start of the year at 667, down two points from June 2010.

The social activism website Change.org has taken up the plight of the parents of an active-duty service member, who are facing foreclosure.

As housing prices continue to slide, the loan-to-value ratios of always-performing loans have in many cases crept higher than those on defaulted loans, according to a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

The nonexistent spring home-selling season has put yet another crimp in the long-expected rebound of private mortgage insurers.

Loan modifications were flat in May compared with the previous month, while foreclosure sales dipped, according to the latest numbers from Hope Now, an industry alliance of mortgage servicers, investors and counselors.

IMGCAP(1)]

VSB Bancorp Inc. said Wednesday that second-quarter earnings fell 7.5% largely because of lower yields on securities and loans during the period.