The number of agreements card issuers had in place with universities and affiliated groups for affinity card programs declined 4% in 2010, and the amount of the money they paid such groups fell 13%, according to a report released Thursday by the Federal Reserve Board.

Two of Massachusetts' oldest thrifts, Salem Five Bank and Stoneham Savings Bank, are teaming up to create a $3.1 billion-asset company that would have nearly 30 branches in the suburbs north of Boston.

Directors at Nara Bancorp Inc. and Center Financial Corp. will have a few more months to deliberate over the planned merger of the two companies.

Before considering the question of when a secondary market for nonconforming loans might return, one should ask whether it should be revived in the first place. That's what participants in a recent panel discussion at the Mortgage Bankers Association's National Secondary Market Conference in New York pondered.

While the topic of a House hearing Thursday was supposed to be about mortgage servicing standards, the target was really the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced plans Thursday to give unemployed homeowners struggling to make mortgage payments more time to avoid foreclosure.

The title alone speaks volumes about an era when women had yet to gain the right to vote: "A Financial Courtship."

Commonwealth Bankshares Inc. and Hampton Roads Bankshares Inc., both in Norfolk, are potentially in hot water with federal officials. For some observers, the troubles began when each tried to keep pace with the biggest community bank in their market.

The Treasury Department released details Thursday about the first wave of capital released under the much-anticipated Small Business Lending Fund.

Moody's Investors Service on Thursday downgraded the servicer quality ratings of two JPMorgan Chase & Co. units, citing deterioration in their collections and foreclosure processes and "operational challenges" due to the current regulatory environment.

Wincor Nixdorf AG is changing its U.S. business model, shifting from a centralized unit based in Austin, Texas to a more dispersed structure.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. is planning to provide a mobile banking app by October for customers of its Virtual Wallet account that use smartphones running Google Inc.'s Android software.

Independent Bank Corp. in Ionia, Mich., has called off a planned a public offering in which it had intended to raise up to $110 million of fresh capital.

Another instance of an allegedly wrongful seizure of a home has surfaced in Florida.

Even if Congress and the Obama administration allow federal loan limits to fall back to pre-crisis levels in October, as expected, the limits will still be higher than they need to be, professors at The George Washington University School of Business have determined.

In finalizing its rule on the licensing and registration of loan officers, the Department of Housing and Urban Development reversed course and is now suggesting that employees working on loan modifications for mortgage servicers should be licensed by the states, says Kris D. Kully, a lawyer at K&L Gates LLP.

A three-judge appellate panel has reinstituted foreclosure proceedings against a Miami couple who created a fake promissory note and convinced a trial judge to discharge their entire mortgage debt.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced three written agreements.

First Community Corp. in Lexington, S.C., on Wednesday agreed to buy the assets of Palmetto South Mortgage Corp. of Columbia, S.C. The $607.3 million-asset company said it expects to complete the deal on July 31.

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