FICO discards incomplete and old credit history information for a good reason. The solution to today's credit-access problems is not to use this unreliable data but to turn to alternative data such as the payment of everyday bills.

Discover Financial Services in Riverwoods, Ill., said it will double cash rewards for certain customers for a limited period, its latest effort to battle with rival issuers for new business.

First Resource Bank in Exton, Pa., plans to raise $6 million through a combination of common stock and subordinated debt to raise funds to redeem most of its Small Business Lending Fund preferred shares.

Access to credit is too tight. But new credit-scoring models could increase the number of eligible borrowers in the U.S. without weakening today’s underwriting parameters.

A financing unit of General Electric has formed a partnership with payroll-services provider WEX to sell fuel cards to trucking companies.

The link between debt in collections and local conditions such as access to health insurance and housing markets is strong, according to Signe-Mary McKernan, senior fellow and Co-Director Opportunity and Ownership Initiative at the Urban Institute.

The U.S. Department of Education has ramped up monitoring of ITT Educational Services Inc. after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against the Indiana-based for-profit college giant and two executives, the company revealed.

Freedom Bank in Overland Park, Kan., has hired Drew Gibson to be its chief financial officer, the Kansas City Business Journal reported Monday.

City National Bank in Los Angeles will provide $350 million in loans to minority- and women-owned small businesses as part of a community lending initiative, it announced Monday.

New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares in Newport has changed its name to Lake Sunapee Bank Group.

Community banks will be able originate and sell jumbo loans with balances as high as $1.5 million under an expansion of a conduit program the Chicago Home Loan Bank has forged with Redwood Trust.

Banks and mortgage lenders are in the final stretch of preparing to deliver new TILA-Respa Integrated Disclosures to homebuyers starting Aug. 1. But it's not just the change of forms that is causing alarm bells. Fines could be steep, and legal liability could be even higher, for violators, while necessary technological changes are expensive, they say.

American Express Co. President Ed Gilligan, who died last week on a return trip from Tokyo, suffered an embolism and subsequent heart attack, according to a person briefed on the matter.

The Supreme Court issued a ruling Monday that said second mortgage liens cannot be voided in bankruptcy, even when the first lien is underwater.

Newly elected Rep. French Hill knows firsthand what it's like to lead a bank through a crisis and implement the sometimes complex rules of Dodd-Frank. That knowledge may prove key as he battles to make regulation simpler for small banks.

The $3.2 billion-asset company issued the notes, due 2030, on Friday on behalf of its Fidelity Bank subsidiary.

A Tennessee community bank investor has acquired a majority stake in AB&T Financial in Gastonia, N.C.

City Holding in Charleston, W.Va., has agreed to buy three branches in Kentucky from American Founders Bank in Lexington.

Most banks are interchangeable in the eyes of the average consumer. But a recent survey finds that mission-oriented banks distinguish themselves with greater employee diversity and a stronger commitment to lending in low- and moderate-income communities.

The South Carolina bank has been shedding assets in recent months after suffering millions of dollars in losses in recent years. The bank ousted its management team last year due to poor financial performance and conflicts with investors.