Caught between Democrats and Republicans, Freddie Mac is guilty of the ultimate sin: owning something it can't easily explain.

CenterState Bank in Winter Haven, Fla., bought a failed bank Friday. John Corbett, the head of CenterState, hired the target's new CEO months ago. He has used that philosophy several times to expand — and doesn't plan to stop there.

Sterling Bancorp's fourth-quarter profit rose 51% from a year earlier, to 5.3 million, as loan volume and net interest income improved.

The recession left its mark on many industries, but if it had a silver lining for 7-Eleven, it may have been the opening it created to get into a more-profitable array of financial-services products in response to shifting consumer demand.

Community banks on average seem to be losing less revenue from a lower interchange cap that first forecast. Observers caution that those banks can't get too comfortable since market forces have yet to change the landscape.

New defaults have tailed off and the pool of bad accounts against which to collect is aging. Yet recoveries have held steady or climbed at large issuers – even in the face of stiffening resistance over documentation problems.

Citigroup announced an upgrade to its online banking application for Apple's iPad that includes what Citi says is the first such robust iPad credit card account-analysis application.

GE Capital has agreed to run the toy retailer's consumer credit card program and buy $900 million of its card assets from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Expect more deals like it this year.

Visa chairman and chief executive Joe Saunders downplayed concerns over the costs associated with implementing its new digital wallet at the company's annual shareholders meeting on Tuesday.

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced two enforcement actions against two banks, the Bank of Bartlett in Tennessee and Capitol City Bancshares Inc. in Atlanta.

The president has assembled a new group of state and federal law enforcers to right mortgage wrongs, but observers doubt it will leave much of a mark.

MountainOne Financial Partners in North Adams, Mass., is merging two of its thrifts under one charter in an effort to become more efficient.

Lender Processing Services has filed a motion to dismiss charges made by Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto against the company and two subsidiaries for fraudulent business practices.

First Mariner Bancorp Inc. in Baltimore said that its fourth-quarter loss narrowed slightly from a year earlier.

Sun Bancorp Inc. in Vineland, N.J., narrowed the size of its loss in the fourth quarter after moving more nonperforming assets off its books.

Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada's second-largest lender, may expand wealth-management operations in the U.S. as it seeks a broader market for mutual funds and investment advice.

COLONIE, N.Y. – CapCom FCU has filed an application with town officials to build a new four-story headquarters.

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MasterCard is pushing merchants to upgrade their checkout systems to handle credit and debit cards that store information inside an embedded chip.