New York

Some of the world's biggest banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Barclays, are exploring the use of bitcoin's underlying technology to overhaul financial markets.

Citigroup has agreed to sell its retail banking and credit card businesses in the Czech Republic to Austria's Raiffeisenbank.

MUFG Americas Holdings in New York has hired Donna Dellosso as chief risk officer for Union Bank and for its other operations in the Americas.

Evans Bancorp in Hamburg, N.Y., has agreed to pay $825,000 to settle a lawsuit that accused the company of mortgage redlining.

CIT Group in New York has formed a joint venture with the private equity firm TPG Capital to provide commercial lending.

New York Community Bancorp in Westbury has named Leslie Dunn, a Federal Home Loan Bank director, to its board.

Esquire Bank, a Garden City, N.Y., bank that specializes in financial services for law firms, has raised $19.1 million in a private placement of common stock.

Astoria Financial in Lake Success, N.Y., has named a former Citigroup banker a director of business banking.

Though one of the defendants in the case appeared in a federal court in New York earlier this week, no pleas have been entered in the illegal Bitcoin exchange with ties to a small, low-income CU in New Jersey.

Empire National Bank in Islandia, N.Y., has named former Commerce Bank president and chief executive Robert Falese to its board.