A high proportion of business owners took out toxic mortgages on their homes, new data shows. Now in default, they can't access credit just as their firms' sales are tanking.

Bank of America has tapped Ron Sturzenegger to oversee the unit responsible for cleaning up the bank's mortgage mess, replacing Terry Laughlin, who recently moved to the role of chief risk officer.

Hampton Roads Bankshares Inc. in Norfolk, Va., announced Thursday that its president and chief executive officer, John A.B. "Andy" Davies has resigned to return to his management consulting practice.

Under pressure from its largest shareholder to beef up its capital base, Polonia Bancorp in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., has announced that it is planning to become a 100% stock-owned company.

WASHINGTON — Lending to small businesses in the U.S. declined last year as the economy struggled to recover from recession and access to credit only started to show signs of improvement, regulators said Thursday.

Former top executives at LaSalle Bank are looking to start a bank that would acquire the assets and deposits of failed banks in and around Chicago.

U.S. Bancorp vice chairman Rick Hartnack said he was "dumbfounded" about the lack of common sense some loan officers at other banks showed in their mistreatment of military customers.

Credit card customers are the most satisfied they've been since the financial crisis, according to an annual survey that partly credits a government crackdown on industry practices.

American Express once again beat out its top competitors in J.D. Power's annual ranking of U.S. credit card customer satisfaction, followed closely by Discover, but Citigroup, Bank of America and HSBC still have room to improve.

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc., the Miami-based investment bank and brokerage, said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Securities America Inc. from Ameriprise Financial Inc. for at least $150 million to add 1,700 financial advisors.

Jeff Gerrish, a lawyer in Memphis who spends a lot of his time advocating on behalf of community banks to federal regulators, sees a thawing in banker-regulator relations, but says it is one born of fatigue rather than enlightenment.

MidSouth Bancorp Inc. in Lafayette, La., has agreed to buy a branch in Tyler, Texas, from Beacon Federal Bancorp Inc.

Access National Corp. in Reston, Va., said Wednesday that it rejected the Treasury Department's offer of $28 million in capital through the Small Business Lending Fund.

Some bankers are withdrawing the applications for the SBLF program after being held back by certain restrictions. Observers question whether the Treasury will deploy most of the funds in time.

Issuers of retail credit cards sought to exit the business en masse during the downturn. Now the industry's appeal is on the rise, along with a dramatic improvement in its performance.

Wells Fargo & Co. is testing a monthly fee with some customers to offset revenue losses it expects on debit card payments. It said earlier this year that it would make changes because of the Fed's decision to cap interchange rates.

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida if finally current on dividends tied to the Troubled Asset Relief Program after missing nine payments to the Treasury Department.

Secure Vault Payments, which lets consumers spend at online merchants without disclosing their bank account details, is expanding into more financial institutions through a deal with the vendor Jwaala.

Last week, the Obama administration, under the leadership of FHFA, HUD and Treasury, and with the support of the Federal Reserve, announced a bold new plan to accomplish what its unsuccessful Hamp program was created to do.

VantageScore, a joint venture of the three credit rating agencies, prevailed against Fair Isaac in court. The ruling said that Fair Isaac does not have exclusive rights to numerical consumer credit scores.