Synovus Financial struggled along with its customers during the financial crisis. Now that it's healthy again, it credits the strong ties it built with those customers, and the involvement of its executives in the communities they serve, with helping restore its status as one of banking's most reputable brands.

WASHINGTON — Community banks and credit unions would be forced to stop making short-term, small dollar loans if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's payday lending proposal is adopted, two trade groups said Monday.

The court's decision to return Madden v. Midland Funding to a lower court leaves unresolved a number of important questions for marketplace lenders and other parts of the consumer-finance industry.

Bay Bancorp in Columbia, Md., has named one of its largest investors, Steven Hovde, to its board.

Kroger is suing Visa, alleging the network threatened to raise fees and cut off the supermarket chain from accepting its debit cards.

Embattled prepaid card issuer Green Dot has officially split the roles of chairman and chief executive by naming a longtime payments industry executive as its new chairman.

Suffolk Bancorp said increased oversight of commercial real estate contributed to — and may have accelerated — its decision to sell to People's United. Other banks could make a similar choice.

Citizens Bank's largely millennial student loan applicants were not responding to email and phone communications. So it created a messaging service that mimics the social media they know and love.

The deadline has arrived for mandatory submissions to the Federal Housing Administration's Electronic Appraisal Delivery portal, but as many as one-third of lenders that originate FHA-insured mortgages have yet to use the new system.

BankFinancial in Olympia Fields, Ill., said it expects to record an $875,000 gain in the second quarter after selling three loans.

A more nuanced view than the two opposing camps supporting or denigrating Dodd-Frank seeks to make banks profitable while ensuring consumers are protected and benefit from economic growth.

In a setback for the U.S. consumer finance industry, the Supreme Court said Monday that it will not review a lower court's decision that bolstered the ability of states to enforce bans on high-cost lending.

Rejecting calls from across the financial-services industry, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a ruling that gives borrowers more power to enforce state limits on interest rates.

Class action lawsuits are supposed to promote judicial efficiency, yet they mostly benefit plaintiff's lawyers while providing little for the people who are actually in the class.

Berkshire Hills Bancorp in Pittsfield, Mass., has agreed to buy First Choice Bank in Lawrenceville, N.J.

People's United Financial in Bridgeport, Conn., has agreed to buy Suffolk Bancorp in Riverhead, N.Y.

Perhaps you read on vacation to escape the financial services grind, or perhaps you read to hone your business craft. Numerous titles on this year's list — recommended by American Banker readers, BankThink contributors, our staff and others — fall somewhere in between. Read about the lives of figures like Elon Musk or Barney Frank. Understand disruption, human error and how to manage stress. Or, perhaps you just want some insight into the sociopath's playbook. It's all here.

A libel lawsuit against a Pennsylvania newspaper and three reporters will continue following a ruling by the Pennsylvania Superior Court. A judge brought the suit following a fake courtroom debt collections case.

The market gyrations following the United Kingdom's vote to leave the European Union have an upside for mortgage lenders, as already-falling interest rates are expected to boost home purchases and refinancing.

The $602 million-asset company said in a press release Friday that Stephen Bianchi was tapped to replace Edward Schaefer, who resigned in May.