Aaron's Inc., a national rent-to-own retailer, settled Federal Trade Commission charges that it played a "direct and vital role" in its franchisees’ installation and use of software on rental computers that secretly monitored consumers, including taking webcam pictures of consumers in their homes.

Senate Banking Committee leaders released their highly anticipated legislation to overhaul the mortgage finance market Sunday afternoon, after announcing they had reached agreement on a plan last week.

Wells Fargo has come under a fresh wave of public scrutiny over allegations that the largest mortgage servicer developed an in-house, how-to manual for producing bogus documents to justify foreclosures.

The Federal Housing Administration is struggling with a high premium structure and competition from VA and GSEs.

American Banker on Friday received the 2014 Jesse Neal Award for Best Website from the Association of Business Information and Media Companies.

Citigroup, which has spent the past few years rethinking its undersized U.S. branch network, on Friday unveiled plans to reformat its physical locations, starting this year in Miami. Executive William Howle explained the changes in an interview.

A lawsuit alleges that Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown violated state law by diverting hundreds of millions of dollars from the national mortgage settlement into California's general fund.

As many young people flee Wall Street for Silicon Valley, senior bank executives are returning to old-school recruiting tactics. Catherine Bessant, who oversees global technology and operations for Bank of America, in an interview detailed the changes she has made to attract tech talent.

Banking activity slowed in January, particularly consumer lending, as cold weather and snowstorms stymied new construction and consumer transactions. Still, bankers maintained an optimistic view of overall business conditions.

Analysts Joseph Fenech and Kevin Fitzsimmons have resigned from the research department at Sandler O'Neill.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency says institutions are taking a "proactive" approach to the dealing with potential payment shock on resetting home equity lines of credit.

A Florida woman has accused the New York bank of relying on robo-signed documents as it tried to collect unpaid credit card balances. She seeks class-action status for her lawsuit.

Third Federal Savings and Loan in Cleveland is planning to expand its residential lending into several additional states.

Steven Antonakes, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's deputy director, recalled how people's interest in what regulators do grew in 2008.

While the Department of Education has developed tools for overseeing collection agencies that it works with to find borrowers and explain repayment options, key weaknesses have limited its ability to properly monitor agency performance, according to a Government Accountability Office report on federal student loans.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has terminated a regulatory agreement with Intervest Bancshares (IBCA), declaring that the New York City company has satisfied all the provisions of the pact.

American Banker held its Retail Banking 2014 conference in Orlando, FL this week. Here, in tweets, are a few of its takeaways.

Bankers are increasingly spending time and money upgrading technology to cut other costs and meet demand for mobile and online banking. But even as they buy online startups like Simple, or build their own systems, bankers at American Banker's Retail Banking 2014 conference said the feel they cannot stop investing in traditional branches.

You might expect Manolo Sanchez, the CEO of BBVA Compass, to renounce traditional branches since his bank is spending $117 million on the online-only startup Simple. But he joined other senior bank executives in defending the branch as "still relevant."