Retail & Commercial

First Connecticut Bancorp in Farmington has committed to making $5 million in small-business loans over the next year.

Questions swirling around LendingClub's leadership shakeup this week are threatening to compound a concern already weighing on its stock: Will investors keep snapping up its loans?

Debt-buying giant Encore Capital Group Inc. reported first quarter earnings of $25.7 million.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said marketplace lenders might find that sources of funding evaporate during a downturn.

Navient has been recognized as a 2020 Women on Boards Winning "W" Company for the second consecutive year. The national award is presented to companies with at least 20% women on their board of directors.

Google said Wednesday it will ban ads for payday loans to protect its customers from what it considers deceptive and harmful financial products. The ban goes into effect on July 13.

Defunct online lender Integrity Advance has filed a lawsuit accusing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of launching an enforcement action against the company without the legal authority to do so.

Sallie Krawcheck unveiled Ellevest, a digital investment platform for women and the latest of her female-oriented ventures, on Wednesday.

Growth in consumer-facing businesses propelled the Index of Banking Activity to a solid 57.1 reading in April. However, a sharp loss of momentum on indicators that track commercial lending yielded one of the sharpest divergences to date between the commercial and consumer sides of the business.

Among the activities tracked by the IBA's individual components, only deposit pricing came in below 50 for the month. But most components saw their scores decline from March, and the components that track commercial loan applications and approvals, both of which were very strong in March, declined by significant margins and hovered at levels just above the break-even mark in April. (Scores above 50 are indicative of expansion within a business line, while those below 50 indicate contraction.)

On a regional level, survey respondents in the Northeast reported increased pressure on new consumer- and commercial-loan pricing. Bankers in the energy-sensitive West were the most likely to report weakness in commercial lending, both in terms of applications and approvals.

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Key factors point to marketplace lenders rebounding from their recent setbacks and continuing their growth.