Regulators seem obsessed with preventing false negatives: loans that pass underwriting and then default. They should consider the costs of false positives, i.e., restricting loans that probably would perform fine.

The U.S. government has padded its return on aid to Citigroup (NYSE:C) during the financial crisis.

A unit of United Community Financial (UCFC) in Youngstown, Ohio, has been freed from an enforcement action with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Ohio Division of Financial Institutions.

A Chicago private-equity firm has acquired a mortgage company from a struggling Milwaukee bank.

Banks have nearly picked the last of the low-hanging earnings fruit.

A family trust set up by CVB Financial (CVBF) co-founder George Borba is considering selling up to 2 million shares for tax and estate planning purposes.

Forcht Bank in Lexington, Ky., is set to open its first in-store branch. The $950 million-asset bank has an agreement to open a branch inside a Kroger grocery store in Louisville, Ky., the Business First Journal reported in its online edition Tuesday.

A recent court ruling has put CFPB Director Richard Cordray’s job in jeopardy. But who should run the bureau if he has to step down?

Bank of Virginia (BOVA) in Midlothian, Va., will invest in Stonegate Mortgage’s residential mortgage-loan participation program.

KeyCorp (KEY) in Cleveland has hired a Bank of America (BAC) veteran as its chief human resources officer.

The nation's biggest asset manager now owns roughly 6% of the outstanding stock in UMB, the companies disclosed in Tuesday filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Fed said Tuesday that it terminated a written agreement with Progressive on Feb. 1. The agreement barred Progressive or its $136 million-asset ProGrowth Bank in Nicollet, Minn., from paying dividends or taking on new debt without approval.

U.S. Bancorp has promoted longtime executive Elliot Jaffee to head its commercial banking division.

Ally, the former lending arm of General Motors, reported earnings of $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter after a $206 million loss a year earlier.

Favorable views of market conditions gained momentum at the end of the year as lawmakers reached a compromise to stave off the fiscal cliff.

Smaller banks are beginning to see more revenue from service charges as they experiment with new fees and products.

With the price of farmland surging, demand from small farmers for guaranteed mortgages is also way up. Now banks want Congress to raise the cap on those loans.

First Horizon National in Memphis, Tenn., has expanded its dealings in municipal bonds.

Community bankers should continue to bolster lending despite challenges created by compliance with a host of new Dodd-Frank regulations, Federal Reserve Gov. Elizabeth Duke said Tuesday.

U.S. financial institutions may see their reporting burdens rise as a result of a law designed to prevent taxpayers from hiding funds offshore.