Merchant

Readers consider Square's bid to become an industrial loan company, weigh the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s oversight of brokered deposits and debate reforms to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The bank will fund community development financial institutions that lend to women-owned businesses backed by the fashion designer's foundation.

Pacific Mercantile and P2Bi are collaborating on a program to help businesses that are not ready for traditional bank financing.

Banks moving past traditional card lending to compete on POS; ; five board members plan to leave before the bank’s May meeting.

Adding new mobile payment methods and integrated platforms can take some of the sting out of processing issues for small to medium sized businesses, according to Tina Hsiao, vice president of risk and chargeback operations at WePay.

Karen Mills, who led the Small Business Administration from 2009 to 2013, is joining the Eastern Bank spinoff Numerated as an adviser and investor as it tries to bring online-lending technology to community banks.

The State Bank of India and Hitachi Payment Services plan to bring their heft to a joint merchant acquiring venture to expand digital payments in India.

Under the recently appointed Director Kathy Kraninger, the bureau has the opportunity to address numerous problems with its collection and presentation of consumer grievances.

Brick-and-mortar retail isn’t dead yet. Though the trend of retailers closing stores in the face of stiff competition from e-merchants is certainly troubling to commercial real estate lenders, it would be a mistake to conclude that all retail loans are risky. Here's a look at which ones are the safest and, potentially, the scariest.

The Atlanta company, which reported fourth-quarter results Tuesday, said that the lending partnership with American Express will launch in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and Dallas within the next 60 days.