The Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act is set to expire at the end of the year. While extending relief to stressed homeowners seems a no-brainer with millions of mortgages still underwater, some worry the measure could be allowed to die.

After more than three years of turmoil, the financial services industry is starting to regroup and move forward on the public relations front. It's a return to normalcy, accompanied with a natural inclination to return to the familiar and comfortable. But with new regulations and a rapidly changing communications environment, there is a need to consider fresh ideas — from unexpected sources.

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Thursday will announce the claims process for thrift shareholders who last year won a breach-of-contract case stemming from the savings-and-loan crisis.

When a judge blocked BankAtlantic's complicated deal to sell the healthy portion of its thrift to BB&T, it was the third so-called good bank/bad bank deal in Florida to get hung up.

A key financing partnership for Ally Financial Inc. could be at risk as part of Chrysler Group LLC's review of its lending programs.

When the 14 biggest mortgage servicers signed consent orders last April over foreclosure misdeeds, they hoped the deal would indemnify them against further claims. Regulators now appear unlikely to grant them blanket immunity.

Regulators say risk-based capital is the ratio they most want to see strengthened, community bankers say. That's a problem because minimum requirements could rise and examiners are said to exercise broad discretion in enforcement.

The expanding array of U.S. cards that use the secure EMV standard now includes the first cobranded hotel card equipped with a chip to make overseas travel easier.

Bank of America has added a new investment offering to its Merrill Edge program for mass-affluent investors, the bank announced Wednesday.

Terri Dial, a former top executive at Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. and widely regarded as one of the industry's most influential women, died Tuesday in Miami. She was 62.

American Express announced Tuesday a new Facebook application that allows the social network's users to send and receive funds.

Now that PayPal is rolling out its point of sale payment system to all Home Depot Inc. stores, the payments company must make sure its terms are good enough to keep its most prominent retail partner happy.

Pacific Mercantile Bancorp in Costa Mesa, Calif., has restructured its planned stock sale to an institutional investor in a move that will save it almost $1 million and increase a key capital ratio.

The housing market meltdown has foreign governments and banks shying away from bonds backed by American home loans. But individual foreign buyers are taking advantage of the crash to snap up U.S. bargains at a record clip.

Julian, a Wachovia alum, will succeed Kevin McCabe, who plans to retire at midyear.

Several days after regulators began publicly touting a $25 billion deal with mortgage servicers, details remain under wraps. Now big banks' securities filings are offering new clues.

BancVue of Austin, Texas is exiting the credit card business in order to devote more attention to its primary business of helping banks and credit unions attract more customers through high-yield checking and savings products.

Fannie Mae, in a new SEC filing, says that in late January it cut off Bank of America from selling most types of loans to the GSE because of "delays" by the lender in making good on outstanding buyback requests.

U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis has tapped long-time Chicago banker Marsha Cruzan as the new president of its Chicago-area operations.