California

Wells Fargo has agreed to pay the state of California $8.5 million to settle a probe into its failure to tell consumers it was recording their calls.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., has hired Jeffrey Zaks, a CIT Group banker, to lead its new media and entertainment lending group.

The president and chief banking officer at Heritage Oaks Bancorp in Paso Robles, Calif., plans to leave the company next month.

With energy stocks enjoying the biggest rebound since the beginning of the oil rout, short sellers have shifted their sights to regional banks that do business with the industry.

TriCo Bancshares in Chico, Calif., paid a lower deposit premium for its purchase of Bank of America branches after deposit levels at those offices fell.

Umpqua Holdings in Portland, Ore., plans to close 26 branches in Oregon, California, Idaho and Washington state in an effort to cut costs.

Wells Fargo left Chief Executive John Stumpf’s compensation for 2015 unchanged at $19.3 million.

PacWest Bancorp in Los Angeles has named Stanley Ivie, a regional director for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., its chief risk officer and an executive vice president. He started Monday.

The activist investor seeking to remove Steve Streit as chief executive of Green Dot will nominate three payments and financial services industry executives to the prepaid card company's board.

Two executives and two directors have resigned from Community Bank of the Bay in Oakland, Calif.

Midland Financial in Oklahoma City has agreed to buy 1st Century Bancshares in Los Angeles.

Growth and geographic expansion have led Western Federal Credit Union to the decision to rebrand.

CO-OP Financial Services, a Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based financial technology company that provides services to credit unions, announced that two of its senior executives now have new assignments.

BBCN Bancorp withstood numerous overtures from Hanmi Financial — and a revolt by four of its own directors — as it negotiated a deal to buy Wilshire Bancorp. A new filing discloses just how intense those pressures were.

Wells Fargo and a Rhode Island government agency were sued by a U.S. regulator for allegedly misleading investors about how much money a company led by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling needed to develop a video game.

The $8.2 billion-asset company will issue about 4.9 million shares at $14.50 apiece, according to a news release Thursday.

Goldsmith died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills, Calif., a City National spokeswoman said Monday.

Pacific Mercantile Bank in Costa Mesa, Calif., announced four executive promotions Friday.

Green Dot reported a larger fourth-quarter loss on higher employee compensation costs and said it will book an extra $11 million in expenses to roll out a new card product.

Mechanics Bank in Walnut Creek, Calif., has entered the residential mortgage market and hired a banker to lead the new loan group.