Finance

Bank of the Ozarks recently dissolved its holding company in a move that goes against modern banking strategy. There are, however, strong arguments for other institutions to follow the bank's lead.

The Spanish bank's VC arm added two companies focused on artificial intelligence to its portfolio this week. Both firms promise to help banks connect better with customers.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group agreed to pay $5.5 billion to settle the second of three major U.S. mortgage-backed securities probes the government-owned lender must overcome before it can fully return to the private sector.

The Arkansas bank bought C1 Financial in Florida and Community & Southern Holdings in Georgia last year.

The Treasury Department will take a huge hit when Cecil Bancorp sells its bank, while 1st Mariner Bank in Baltimore will see its equity stake completely wiped out. Cecil opted for bankruptcy court when it was unable to resolve an impasse over its trust-preferred stock.

The former Triumph Capital Advisors doubled its business by acquiring Doral Bank's CLO assets; Dodd-Frank’s “skin in the game” regs spurred its spinoff as a vehicle of the deep-pocketed Pine Brook.

It’s not speed, which will steadily if not exponentially increase in the near term. It’s the centralists that are holding onto their roles as reconcilers of data.

Chinese banks and insurance companies represent a new and potentially large source of capital that could crowd out U.S. banks as investors in collateralized loan obligations.

Much like the consumer retail acquisition market, business payment companies are expanding the appeal of transaction automation by tying it to international growth and value-added merchant services.

The company contends a lot of current payments technology is focused on horizontal companies that are designed to easily enable payments, and are operating agnostic to the type of business that requires a payments gateway,

The subprime business lender halted new business and laid off scores of employees after recording higher-than-expected losses.

PwC reports a modest improvement in its gender pay gap. A study finds a big gender pay gap in the U.K’s financial services industry. Plus, female founders speak out about sexual harassment and explain why they kept quiet before.

AutoGravity of Irvine, Calif., has received $30 million in equity financing from VW Credit, according to a source familiar with the matter.

InstaReM plans to use the investment to accommodate rapid volume expansion.

The world is divided into those who pursue popular decisions that are more likely to fail and those who go against the crowd and end up having the last laugh.

Net interest margins are on the rise and banks have the green light to return more capital to shareholders, but commercial lending and consumer credit quality remain trouble spots.

Readers criticized a credit union securitization proposal, weighed in on scaling back the CFPB’s complaint database, debated the need for banks to examine gender-based salary comparisons, and more.

Higher dividends and more aggressive repurchase programs are bound to attract more investors, which could boost stock prices and prompt more dealmaking, analysts said.

The New York-based company saw its fortunes fade after riding an earlier wave of investor enthusiasm about marketplace lending.

The North Carolina company's purchase of Chattahoochee Bank will add a branch and loan production office to its existing operations in northern Georgia.