Retail & Commercial

Senior members of the Obama administration posted a blog under the headline: "A Moral Case for Putting a Stop to Payday Lending Abuses." White House officials are citing support from a diverse array of religious leaders for ending the cycle of debt caused by taking out multiple payday loans.

It sounds like a bad idea to seat customers in front of a screen to open accounts or get other higher-level services from remote banking officers, but BluCurrent Credit Union in Springfield, Mo., turned to video banking to cure its branch traffic woes and its members seem to like it.

United Community Financial in Youngstown, Ohio, has hired a JPMorgan Chase executive to be in charge of its technology.

The $973 million-asset bank will build one of its first stand-alone branches this year in Fairway, Kan., in the metro Kansas City area. Most of Academy's 88 branches are located inside Walmart stores.

It sounds like a bad idea to seat customers in front of a screen to open accounts or get other higher-level services from remote banking officers, but BluCurrent Credit Union in Springfield, Mo., turned to video banking to cure its branch traffic woes and its members seem to like it.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is continuing to reject calls to slash the annual premium for the Federal Housing Administration despite a renewed push by the National Association of Realtors. But some predict the FHA may eventually cave in.

The Better Business Bureau serving the western part of Florida has issued an alert about a fraudulent debt collection operation using the name ACS Inc.

Foreclosures filings fell in the first quarter to the lowest level in more than nine years and foreclosure activity dropped below pre-recession levels in more than one-third of major metropolitan areas.

Severn Bancorp in Annapolis, Md., has agreements in place to raise $11 million through a private placement of common stock.

First Horizon National in Memphis, Tenn., reported improved quarterly earnings that reflected higher revenue.