Digital upstarts are out to steal traditional banks' customers by taking the hassle out of everything from account opening to borrowing. It’s tough to compete with banks' resources and brand recognition, but these new mobile competitors are adamant that they can win on customer experience.

Here's our annual list of the most profitable 200 publicly traded community banks and thrifts, with an analysis of how they are managing to outperform peers. The ranking is based on three-year average ROE.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is urging banks to reevaluate how they use credit bureaus like ChexSystems, after his investigation found that inaccurate data reported by banks is preventing some consumers from opening checking and savings accounts. Three banks already have agreed to modify their use of ChexSystems in screening potential customers.

For all their talk, banks are still sorely lacking when it comes to creating a great user experience in their digital channels, as this unhappy customer can attest.

With the role of the chief financial officer being redefined since the financial crisis, we asked CFOs at banks across the country, from Stock Yards' Nancy Davis to Comerica's Karen Parkhill, about what parts of the job they most enjoy, which tasks are taking up more time now than in the past, where they wish they could spend more time and, finally, what they would tell themselves at the beginning of their careers. Here are some of their responses.

With low rates tempting more home owners to refinance and relaxed down payment requirements spurring more home sales, bankers are more optimistic about mortgage lending than they have been in some time.

Another quick illustration of why bank customers and regulators are demanding that the U.S. move to a real-time payments system.

Carolina Premier Bank in Charlotte, N.C., has recruited Timothy C. Key to be its new chief lending officer and Carrington S. "Cash" Canada as its chief credit officer.

Signature Bank in New York is poised to start lending to city governments. The move is well-timed; the wind-down of GE Capital removes a competitor and provides Signature with a chance to buy assets and hire salespeople.

Sun Bancorp in Mount Laurel, N.J., swung to a profit thanks to branch closings and other expense reductions.

Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Ind., missed first-quarter expectations as merger-related and streamlining expenses negated many of the benefits from recently completed acquisitions.

As a pawnbroker for over 26 years and a former president of the National Pawnbrokers Association, I am alarmed and dismayed by the recent wave of banks terminating their relationships with pawnbrokers.

Abandoned homes in New York City that are stuck in foreclosure proceedings jumped 38% rise in 2014. State officials are pushing for legislation to make banks and mortgage lenders more responsible.

Discover, the only major U.S. card network that did not support Apple Pay at the mobile wallet's launch, has inked a deal with Apple, eliminating some of the fragmentation in the mobile wallet's deployment.

Corinthian Colleges, the for-profit chain of colleges under fire in the last year for leaving students with unsustainable debt levels and lackluster job prospects, announced it's shutting down its remaining 28 campuses effective Monday.

Banks can ditch their reputations as fuddy-duddy workplaces by helping millennial employees connect with the social mission driving the company and giving them plenty of opportunities to advance their careers.

Martin Tobias is upset that JPMorgan Chase closed his accounts this week after a news report about his business connections to the marijuana industry, but he says he partly understands the pressure banks are under.

Freddie Mac has planned its first Extended Timeline Pool Offering, the government-sponsored entity announced this week.

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The McLean, Va., credit card lender is offering steep discounts to Uber riders, even though the promotion stands to hurt some of the bank's commercial borrowers.