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Wells Fargo's Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf, struggling to quell a scandal and demands for management accountability, plans to offer House lawmakers the same apology he gave senators last week except for a key change, according to a copy of the testimony obtained by Bloomberg News.

Deutsche Bank AG rebounded from a record low after the German lender agreed to sell its U.K. insurance business for 935 million pounds ($1.2 billion), and Chief Executive Officer John Cryan ruled out a capital raise.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle the first of three major U.S. mortgage-backed securities probes the bank must overcome before it can resume dividend payments.

Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit was fined $12.5 million to settle allegations that the broker's weak controls led to multiple orders being sent to markets, resulting in mini-flash crashes.

Breaking News This Morning ...Deutsche sells insurer: Deutsche Bank, which is under heavy pressure to raise capital, said Wednesday it sold its Abbey Life insurance unit to Phoenix Group Holdings for $1.22 billion. The bank's stock, which hit a 33-year low earlier this week, as it faces a potential $14 billion penalty in the U.S. for allegedly selling toxic mortgage-backed securities, in addition to other problems, including a failed stress test and weak quarterly earnings. The sale, however, will result in a nearly $900 million loss for the German bank. The BBC reported Wednesday morning that Germany is devising a bailout plan, should one be needed, although the bank denied the report. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times

For banks eyeing blockchain technology, 2016 has been the year of tests, trials and proofs of concept. By this time next year, however, some 15% of them could be running blockchain solutions in the wild, according to research by IBM.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce has opened a new outpost in the nation's capital. But instead of looking for a staid law office, the bitcoin advocacy group formed a partnership with the local incubator 1776 to launch the DC Blockchain Center.

The rise of equity crowdfunding is drawing more interest from U.S. entrepreneurs who can’t get seed-stage funding from a VC, from those who can’t get the money as quickly as the founders would like and from others who simply like the idea of getting buy-in from the mass market.

It looks like the U.S. market will finally join a large number of other countries and offer real-time payments—but can ubiquity be achieved?

Wells Fargo Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf will forfeit $41 million of stock, plus some salary, as the bank's board investigates the company's bogus-account scandal.