Retail & Commercial

The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is reducing medical debt in collections for some low-income consumers, according to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Over the past year, threats of steep downgrades have chilled secondary investor demand for federally guaranteed student loans, but two recent securitizations suggest that the market is beginning to thaw.

The Department of Education wants to make student loan payments easier through the launch of a single Web portal for federal student loan borrowers.

CIT Group named John C. Erickson president of its consumer bank and head of operations in California. Erickson, 54, will be based in Pasadena, California, and report to Chief Executive Officer Ellen Alemany.

A decline in expenses and a modest rise in lending income boosted first-quarter profit at Popular in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Recent prosecutions against lenders accused of usury violations will test the government's use of a law more commonly known in organized crime cases.

It didn't take long for debit card issuers affected by the Durbin amendment fee caps to cut back or eliminate rewards programs to recoup costs. Issuers now engaged in the increasingly competitive credit card rewards and loyalty environment may soon have to face that same decision.

Simmons First National in Pine Bluff, Ark., plans to close 10 banks across four states by the end of the second quarter: three branches in Arkansas, four in the Missouri and Kansas region and three in Tennessee.

Senate appropriators approved $13 million in new funding to update the Federal Housing Administration's "outdated and unautomated" information technology systems, but rejected President Obama's proposed way of paying for it.

Community banks are grappling with a quickly changing operating environment, but they might have some practical advantages over large banks in building partnerships with fintech firms, and those relationships could give them the competitive edge they seek.