Visa Inc. (V), the world's largest payments network, posted a 46% increase in fiscal second-quarter profit as it benefited from higher transaction volume and the remeasurement of net-deferred tax liabilities.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will testify before Congress next Tuesday regarding efforts to allow more Americans to refinance their mortgages.

The Private Bank of California in Los Angeles is opening a new office in affluent — and crowded — Orange County and has hired three local bankers to manage the office and drum up business there.

MasterCard's first-quarter profit rose 21% from a year earlier, as the payments network picked up debit card business in the wake of new regulations.

Bankers usually fear Wal-Mart, Target and other big-box players. But nine banks and mortgage lenders have teamed up with Costco to offer an online mortgage service to its members, and more services may follow.

Atlantic Coast Financial (ACFC) of Jacksonville, Fla., reported a narrower loss in the first quarter than in previous quarters as it reduced its overhead and reiterated that it is still considering selling itself.

The gods of irony must be alive and well at American Banker. It's hard to think of a better explanation for the April 30 tirade against "deadbeats" from Andrew Kahr — whose approach to the credit business was described this way in a front-page San Francisco Chronicle news story in 2002:

In a move that could make its shares more attractive to potential investors, Popular Inc. (BPOP) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is planning a reverse stock split in which shareholders would receive a single new share for each 10 shares owned.

One of the obstacles to an acquisition is that the offers never make it to the board. They tend to come first through the target's CEO, who stands to lose a job (and compensation) in any sale.

Bryn Mawr Trust Company in Pennsylvania is expanding its banking operations into Delaware to go along with its wealth management business there.

EverBank Financial in Jacksonville, Fla., has reduced the size of its planned initial public offering, saying in an SEC filing it will offer 19.2 million shares to the public at $11 to $12 each, not the 12 to $14 each initially planned.

Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) is pairing with a Michigan retailer to substantially expand its presence in the state over the next decade.

Recently, the issue of a lender's authority and right to pursue foreclosure on defaulted residential mortgage loans has become a subject of national interest. It is at the heart of the $25 billion settlement agreed to recently between the Federal government, 49 state attorneys general and the nation's five largest loan servicers.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Alaska USA FCU expanded again in Washington with the opening of a new branch in a Safeway supermarket in Edmonds.

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Citigroup Inc. (C) has snatched Freddie Mac executive Anthony Renzi to become the chief operating officer of its North American mortgage business, according to people familiar with the matter.

LAS VEGAS — Troubled Silver State Schools CU said this afternoon it lost another $3.5 million for the first quarter, erasing all of its remaining net worth and leaving it only with the emergency assistance provided by its private deposit insurer ASI.

Ovation Holdings Inc. has agreed to buy most of Royal Palm Bank in Florida from Mercantile Bancorp.

Bar Harbor Bankshares (BHB) in Maine has struck its first deal in its 125-year history, announcing late Tuesday that it is buying substantially all of the assets and deposits of Border Trust Company in Augusta.

The San Luis Obispo, Calif., bank in five years went from a start-up to the winner in a bidding war between two bank suitors. Picking a good location and keeping its nose clean paid off, CEO Mark Crawford said.