Relationship and people skills certainly remain important, but today's wealth management leaders require far more than those largely sales-oriented abilities.

WASHINGTON — It may not be an outright ban on arbitration clauses, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's impending proposal to enable more class-action lawsuits comes close.

The Delaware company reported nominal profit in the second quarter as it attempted to sell off its commercial loans and address concerns listed in a year-old regulatory order.

Approximately 17.6 million people over the age of 16 reported at least one incident of identity theft in 2014, according to a new report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Capital Commerce Bancorp in Milwaukee has raised more than $11 million through a private placement.

Middlefield Banc Corp. in Middlefield, Ohio, has bought out its largest shareholder.

Empowering women to become more financially independent has been a hallmark of Lori Chillingworth's career as a small-business banker. Now she's on an even bigger mission: to help more women in Utah gain seats on corporate boards and compete for political office.

A group of private investors has agreed to buy Radius Bancorp in Boston.

Republic Bancorp in Louisville, Ky., has agreed to buy Cornerstone Bancorp in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Robo-advisers have myriad conflicts of interest and fall short of the standard of care under fiduciary investment law. The Labor Department's endorsement of these algorithmic investment guides seems curious and misplaced.

Fifth Third Bancorp has agreed to pay nearly $85 million to settle fraud charges related to undisclosed defective Federal Housing Administration-insured loans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's impending proposal, to be reviewed by a small business advisory panel, would block companies from using arbitration clauses to avoid class actions but allow them for individuals.

MBT Bancorp in Monroe, Mich., is planning to close four branches. The $1.3 billion-asset company also said it would stop offering retail services at a corporate office in Wyandotte, Mich.

A pair of community banks have lined up funding through separate subordinated-debt agreements with a firm in the Cayman Islands.

The central bank originally established a 10-year time horizon for completing upgrades to the nation's aging electronic payment system. But a task force convened by the Fed thinks that's not ambitious enough.

Independence Bancshares in South Carolina last week fired its CEO and gave up its dreams of shaking up the payments world after losing nearly $9 million on the effort. Many details are still unknown, but it looks like a case study for what can go wrong when community banks invest in technology.

Despite their major push to overhaul the housing finance market last Congress, Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., offered little optimism Tuesday that structural reform is on its way anytime soon.

Sunshine Bancorp in Plant City, Fla., has hired another former executive from the former Susquehanna Bancshares in Lititz, Pa.

Marlin Business Services in Mount Laurel, N.J., has partnered with property and casualty insurer Hartford Financial Services Group to expand services for its core clientèle.

The pace of bank M&A deals slowed in the third quarter and was flat through the first nine months of this year.