PacWest Bancorp in Los Angeles said its October acquisition of the tech-focused lender Square 1 helped its fourth-quarter profit rise 1.2% from a year earlier to $71.8 million.

Ocwen Financial Corp. will pay $2 million to settle charges that it misstated its financial results in valuing complex mortgage assets, the Securities and Exchange Commission said this week.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency may face legislation or a lawsuit in the near future as it tries to force captive insurance companies to exit the Federal Home Loan Bank System.

Western Alliance Bancorp. in Phoenix reported higher fourth-quarter profit on higher commercial and construction lending and improved fee income.

A service that used to be a no-brainer for banks is now hampered by limited revenue and a hard-to-justify cost structure.

A Florida campus of a for-profit college chain used deceptive practices that coerced students into racking up huge debt, according to a newly unsealed whistleblower lawsuit.

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted Jamie Dimon's pay 35 percent, tying most of the package to future performance after a record share of investors rejected the bank's compensation practices last year.

Data on consumer borrowing and debt released by S&P Dow Jones Indices and Experian show consumer credit default rates stabilized in December.

The collapse in oil prices hammered fourth-quarter profits at Hancock Holding as the Gulfport, Miss., sharply boosted its loan-loss provision address weakness in its energy loan book.

At least five regional banks on Thursday discarded concerns about the global economy, stocks, interest rates and credit quality, forecasting loan growth for the rest of this year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. handed community bankers a critical win on Thursday by rescinding a plan to treat reciprocal deposits as brokered deposits in the calculation of small-institution assessments.

F.N.B. in Pittsburgh said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit fell 0.5% from a year earlier, to $37.1 million.

Fourth-quarter earnings reports probably couldn't have been scheduled for a worse time. Banks reported results (and sometimes good ones) right as the markets and the price of oil tanked. The cold reception from investors and analysts is a reminder of how sometimes the analysis of a banks' numbers has little to do with the past quarter, and more to do what's going on right now.

Subtly altered versions of popular apps are appearing more often on smartphones. These rogue apps, often available for free, can steal mobile banking passwords or redirect text messages containing passcodes.

Webster Financial Corp. in Waterbury, Conn., said loan growth and higher returns from its HSA Bank subsidiary helped its fourth-quarter profit rise 4.5% year over year, to $50.6 million.

Aquesta Financial Services in Cornelius, N.C., has acquired an insurance portfolio from James E. Moore Agency in Wilmington, N.C.

BB&T in Winston-Salem, N.C., plans to shut down an auto leasing business it inherited after buying Susquehanna Bancshares in Lititz, Pa.

The CFPB announced Thursday that Herbies Auto Sales must provide $700,000 in refunds to customers and pay a $100,000 fine to resolve allegations it hid finance charges and deceived consumers purchasing vehicles.

ASB Bancorp in Asheville, N.C., has agreed to appoint to its board the activist investor Lawrence Seidman and another representative picked by Seidman.