Retail & Commercial

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's decision to raise conforming loan limits in 2016 for the first time in a decade is being met with enthusiasm from the mortgage industry, as it should prove to be a positive for future origination volume.

The Pennsylvania company has redoubled its outreach to low- and moderate-income consumers by partnering with Operation Hope on a down payment assistance program and naming a veteran banker to the newly created post of director of fair and responsible banking. But despite these efforts, history says Fulton is unlikely to escape punishment if the Justice Department finds that it violated fair-lending laws.

An Israeli startup in the emerging B2B2C space that allows consumers to make payments through major messaging apps has completed a $6 million round of funding backed by Banco Santander, Mastercard and other investors.

The longtime CEO of Oconee Federal Financial in Seneca, S.C., is handing the reins to his son. Curtis T. Evatt, Oconee's president and chief financial officer, will succeed T. Rhett Evatt as CEO of the $484 million-asset holding company and Oconee Federal Savings and Loan Association on Jan. 1.

Belmont Savings in Massachusetts isn't trying to fire or replace its employees who work the phones pursuing sales leads, but it has made some technological investments to get more out of them.

Hopes are high among bankers that soon-to-be President Donald Trump and the new Congress will quickly lower the corporate tax rate. But a tax overhaul might benefit community banks and small regionals more than larger banks, especially those reliant on tax strategies that might be less meaningful in a new system.

Big banks are still levying overdraft charges. New technology startups can stem the tide and help digitally-savvy millennials manage payments and their budgets.

Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, said it plans to add 1,000 jobs by 2024 at a new office complex in Columbus and lend $300 million to low- and moderate-income communities in the city over the next five years.

Consumers flooded Twitter and downdetector.com with complaints that Bank of America's teller system was down Tuesday afternoon.

Old Dominion National Bank has opened a new office in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington and has hired five bankers to work there.