The Securities and Exchange Commission has given community banks and other small companies more flexibility to issue private stock, but even more flexibility should be granted to fulfill congressional intent.

WSFS Financial Corporation in Wilmington, Del., is looking to raise $100 million through the sale of notes and plans to use the proceeds for a range of purposes, including possible acquisitions.

Outstanding consumer credit, a measure of nonmortgage debt, rose by a seasonally adjusted $13.4 billion in April from March, according to the Federal Reserve.

Walk down your average street in this country, and you'll find it easier to take out a loan than buy a coffee. With 22,000 payday lending locations in the U.S., Starbucks would have to grow three times in size to compete. Since the 1990s, annual loan volume has bloated to an estimated $27 billion. That's a lot of coffee.

Farmers & Merchants Bancorp in Lodi, Calif., has agreed to buy Delta National Bancorp in Manteca, Calif.

With its very survival at stake, the San Francisco-based marketplace lender is balancing key priorities that are sometimes in conflict with each other.

Trustmark in Jackson, Miss., reduced its workforce by more than 6% by offering early retirement packages.

Wintrust Financial in Rosemont, Ill., is planning to raise about $160 million through a common stock offering.

Highlands Bancorp in Vernon, N.J., has raised $7.5 million to exit the Small Business Lending Fund.

Lenders are questioning the legal justification for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's putting a 36% annual percentage rate threshold in its payday proposal, claiming loans made at that rate are unprofitable. That figure has been the subject of intense debate in the past decade.

PNC Financial Services Group has been named the official bank of the University of Kentucky, its 50th such partnership with a college or university.

A longtime California bank regulator and executive has joined the board at Hanmi Financial in Los Angeles.

Throw Cathy Bessant of Bank of America a question about a hot tech topic, and she's got answers. Blockchain? She loves it but is still waiting for its use case. Patents? The law is making us be aggressive. Swift? A call to action. And that's just the start.

The financial crisis, and its aftermath, created a new layer of regulation to consider. A growing need to fund technology projects and an uncertain rate environment have only made it harder to forecast revenue and expenses.

Debt collectors are facing increasing pressure from the CFPB through aggressive regulation by enforcement. In the past few years, the CFPB has entered into consent orders with debt buyers, banks and other lenders. The orders limit debt sales, increase data requirements and forbid various collection practices.

Aneel Delawalla, managing director at Accenture, offers advice on how bank CFOs can carve out more time for strategic planning, as demands from regulators and investors increase.

The FTC's annual report on enforcement actions involving the Electronic Fund Transfer Act, the Truth in Lending Act and the Consumer Leasing Act highlights seven new or ongoing cases involving EFTA issues in 2015.

Illinois owes $3 million to the FBI for processing fingerprints and conducting background checks for professional licenses and permits. The debt is old enough that it could be turned over to the federal government's collection agency - the Treasury Department.

Without the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau setting specific debt collection guidelines — including what technology agencies can use — the industry will continue a practice that harms consumers: lawsuits.

Most banks will be content to let the rate chasers walk if CD rates rise, but they'll still need to hike payouts if they hope to keep pace with the competitors. Question is, how far will they go to retain their best customers?