Retail & Commercial

The parent company of the consumer lender LendUp has been fined more than $6.3 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the California Department of Business Oversight for overcharging borrowers and violating payday and installment lending laws.

Concerns about cross-selling run deeper than the risk of misbehavior. The practice also has a questionable economic rationale.

The move is an example of how banks are looking to fintech entrepreneurs to bring innovation in, and it illustrates the emphasis and importance banks are putting on their mobile channels.

The $13 billion-asset company, formed by the merger of BBCN Bancorp and Wilshire Bancorp, said in a press release Monday that it will close 12 branches in southern California, New York and New Jersey as part of a broader cost-cutting effort.

First Merchants Corp. in Muncie, Ind., has agreed to buy a minority stake in Independent Alliance Banks in Fort Wayne, Ind.

The investment bank's annual ranking of midcap all-stars includes 10 returning all-stars from 2015 and 11 newcomers.

Debbie Matz, a former chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, has joined the board of Mutual of Omaha Bank in Nebraska.

American Express can prohibit merchants from steering customers to credit cards with lower transaction fees, a federal appeals court ruled in a case involving about $50 billion of merchant fees annually.

Technology? Bankers can keep up. New regulations? We've got people to handle that. But how to account for the flight of customers, prospective employees and economic opportunities from rural areas is perhaps the biggest challenge facing community lenders and policymakers, warns a longtime Oklahoma banker.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday fined a large auto title lender $9 million for failing to disclose the terms and costs of its title loans in three states, and for illegally exposing consumers' information to their employers.