WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is raising questions about the policies and data banks use to vet consumers before allowing them to open a checking account.

Banks have ceded market share to business-development companies, hedge funds and others when it comes to loans to midsize companies. Unless banks strengthen cross-selling techniques and embrace technology soon, then competition, Basel III and other forces will eat into their profits.

In a piece on The Clearing House website, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said the culture fostered by top executives can have more to do with creating problems at banks than individual bad decisions.

The Salt Lake City bank has formalized programs to help employees who are in the reserves or have active-duty spouses and children deployed far from home. Its efforts range from raising funds for a family with a severely injured son, to hiring a landscaping firm to mow the lawn of an employee in need.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has issued an unpublished opinion in Lynn v. Monarch Recovery Management Inc. that supports a ruling that the agency violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Prosperity thought it had its bases covered, adding a clause in an employment agreement with lenders at an acquired bank in Oklahoma establishing Texas law as the jurisdiction for the contract. A judge disagreed in a decision that should get the attention of banks eyeing out-of-state deals.

Everything is on the table — including the table — as banks accelerate their efforts to trim real estate costs. Options range from subleasing branches that are too large to finding professional investors who will buy the branches and lease back a portion of them.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) hired senior bankers from Rothschild and Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) for its investment banking business in the Middle East.

The Mortgage Bankers Association continues to push back against regulations stemming from the financial crisis, as the industry's biggest lobbying group continues pushing for regulatory relief to bolster the housing market — and boost profits for its members.

AT&T Mobility LLC will pay $105 million to settle multi-agency charges it illegally billed third-party charges to consumers nationwide, federal authorities announced Wednesday.

The Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion should require financial institutions to perform regular, standardized and data-driven assessments of workforce and supplier diversity.

Heritage Financial Group in Albany, Ga., has agreed to buy a branch in a northeast Atlanta suburb from PrivateBancorp.

Astoria Financial in Lake Success, N.Y., has hired former KeyCorp executive Hugh Donlon to be its chief lending officer.

The company attempted to claim tribal jurisdiction to avoid enforcement action.

OneMain Financial, Citigroup's consumer-lending arm, filed for a $50 million initial public offering in the U.S.

Americans showed more caution in taking on non-mortgage debt in August, according to the latest consumer borrowing report from the Federal Reserve.

Congress should amend the bankruptcy code to permit borrowers to discharge student loan debt if their net monthly income is insufficient.

The trade group said late Tuesday that Peter Gwaltney will succeed Thad Woodard on Jan. 2. Woodard is retiring after spending 37 years in various capacities at the association.

Current college attendees are carrying between $22,000 and $25,000 in student-loan debt, according to a report issued Tuesday by Citizens Financial Group.

Dominik Mjartan, the new head of a bank-affiliated community development financial institution in Arkansas, identifies with his underbanked customers who want to realize the American Dream.