Retail & Commercial

The company will pay $96 million to buy HomeTown Bankshares to gain scale in western Virginia.

The firm hopes to distinguish itself from other lenders by analyzing customer cash flow to determine the likelihood that borrowers will repay.

When Stephanie Cohen earned the chief strategy officer’s job at Goldman Sachs in January, she was told she had a blank sheet of paper. Cohen responded by, among other things, launching an internal incubator for new business ideas.

Spilkin's education in math and programming, uncommon in investment banking, has allowed her to bring a disruptive approach to problem-solving at Goldman Sachs.

The company will record a quarterly charge after reporting potential fraud tied to commercial deposit accounts.

Stevens will step down this month as head of the Western region, which had been cited for widespread customer-integrity violations. However, she had been credited with raising concerns about aggressive sales practices.

First Foundation sold loans to Freddie Mac to free up space for higher-yielding credits. It then bought the securities that were formed to replace other, lower-yielding assets through an often overlooked program.

The agency found that banks with less than $10 billion in assets were more prone than larger lenders to go beyond using standard criteria in evaluating borrowers.

Financial firms must follow customers from mobile devices to desktop and back without missing a beat.

Among the three measures is a requirement for boards of publicly traded firms to include more women.