The $3.6 billion-asset Simmons First said Thursday that it plans to pay $53.6 million in cash for the Little Rock, Ark., bank.

Three years after constructing a database aimed at standardizing the home appraisal process, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are still finding serious discrepancies in many appraisals submitted by mortgage lenders.

Capitol City Bank & Trust in Atlanta has named Chief Operating Officer John Turner its new president and chief executive.

The top leaders of the Senate Banking Committee said Thursday that they intend to reach a bipartisan agreement by yearend on a bill to revamp the mortgage finance system despite fears that the issue is losing momentum.

The Treasury Department plans to auction nearly $118 million of shares in six lenders as it continues to wind down the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Fortress Investment Group hired Michael Nierenberg, Bank of America's head of global mortgages and securitized products, as a senior executive in its private-equity business, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.

Landmark Community Bank in Collierville, Tenn., has agreed to acquire the central Tennessee assets of Cadence Bank, according to a report.

Sober presentations from CEOs normally dominate the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference in New York, but instant interactive polls and a piano-bar soundtrack gave this year's get-together an offbeat feel.

An activist investor with a reputation for pressuring management teams is pushing for a seat on the board of Malvern Federal Bancorp in Paoli, Pa.

Want consumers to engage with your financial firm? Don’t try to turn their finances into a flashy smartphone game; find new ways to do their banking for them.

Atlantic Coast Financial (ACFC) in Jacksonville, Fla., plans to sell $46 million in common stock. The move, disclosed in a Tuesday regulatory filing, follows a tumultuous period for the $743 million-asset company.

More community banks are establishing credit card loyalty programs in their quest for revenue growth. The programs can work provided they are easy to understand, pay a lot of cash and tie rewards points to local services.

Regulators sought to reassure bankers about new mortgage rules at a conference in North Carolina this week, but remarks from all sides about pitfalls and policy mistakes fed the tension.

Investors should brace for third-quarter earnings shock as banks' loan growth stalls and mortgage-banking revenue dries up even faster than predicted, according to an analyst report from BMO Capital Markets.

BankUnited (BKU) in Miami Lakes, Fla., is ready for some football. The $13 billion-asset company announced Thursday that it has become an "official partner" of the New York Jets.

Marlin Business Services (MRLN) in Mount Laurel, N.J., has hired a chief lending officer for its bank.

Umpqua Holdings (UMPQ) in Portland, Ore., has agreed to buy Sterling Financial (STSA) in Spokane, Wash.

Foreclosure filings fell 34 percent in the U.S. last month as first-time defaults dropped to the lowest level in almost eight years and rising home prices made it easier for distressed owners to sell, RealtyTrac said.

If you stop by bar Room77 in Berlin's Kreuzberg neighborhood for a beer, you can leave the euros in your wallet and instead pay with the digital currency Bitcoin—a growing phenomenon in Germany and other countries that are changing their views on the currency.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. may settle regulators' probes into the bank's credit-card debt collection practices and sales of identity-theft products as early as next week.