Amherst Advisory & Management, the asset-management unit of mortgage bond specialist Amherst Holdings LLC, this week said it will soon make its first claims against lenders responsible for faulty home loans, a sign that more investors are joining the uprising against banks.

A pair of banking companies said Friday that they have been approved for participating the in the Small Business Lending Fund and plan to use the funds to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

For borrowers with little credit history and therefore no credit score, one mortgage company is looking at other type of payments to determine creditworthiness.

The Federal Home Loan Bank System is seeking an exemption from pending risk retention rules so they can continue to provide risk-sharing mortgage programs that they claim have exhibited "superior credit performance" for more than a decade.

Visa's move to prompt widespread chip-card acceptance will have major consequences for merchants and card issuers, particularly if the other card networks do not follow its lead.

Smaller merchants may miss Visa's first deadline for chip-card acceptance by as much as two years, though larger merchants should meet that deadline easily.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has issued guidelines to clear up confusion around tokenization, a process for obscuring sensitive payment card data.

Some of the new red tape was supposed to drive deals, but it could dry up M&A among banks near $50 billion of assets.

Banks have struggled for years to get their customers to accept paperless account statements. But even among those who have succeeded in such efforts, paper use has risen.

The latest forecast of mobile payment growth, from U.K. research company Visiongain, calls for $150 billion in mobile-phone-generated payments to take place globally by the end of this year.

The Federal Home Loan Bank System is seeking an exemption from pending risk-retention rules so the Home Loan banks can continue to provide risk-sharing mortgage programs that they claim have exhibited "superior credit performance" for more than a decade.

Wealth management firms rushed to reassure clients after the U.S. downgrade. Top retail banks and credit card lenders left their customers out of the loop.

The reality is sinking in.

There is a particular segment of the underbanked population that every financial institution should focus on. Young adults, defined as anyone between the ages of 18 and 25, represent a valuable segment of potential customers for a couple of reasons.

Heritage Bankshares Inc. said Thursday that it had completed a $7.8 million investment transaction in the Small Business Lending Fund program.

The Federal Reserve this week took action against four banks, including three written agreements and the issuance of a prompt corrective order against Bank of the Eastern Shore.

MasterCard has promoted Debra Janssen to managing director of its Access Prepaid Worldwide subsidiary.

Though Simple Finance Technology's BankSimple has yet to launch, it is becoming an early adopter with the technology it uses to open accounts and vet new customers.

The online bank has (begrudgingly) started offering customers paper checks. Like credit cards, its checkbooks must be activated before using.

The article "Bankers Fear 'Witch Hunt' in Government Pursuit of Fair Lending Cases" [Aug 2] chronicles the response of bankers, advocates, the Department of Justice itself, and others to "an aggressive push by the Justice Department to investigate fair lending claims..." and "...the launch last year of a special fair-lending unit within Justice's civil rights division...investigating claims of bank discrimination in their credit policies."