Retail & Commercial

Debt held by consumers in the U.S. as they age is rising, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Community banks can't win on size, but their values give them an upper hand in competing against cookie-cutter megabank branches.

Though bank analysts like Matthew Schultheis generally expect M&A activity to continue at a brisk pace for several years to come, stock market volatility could prove to be an issue for potential dealmakers in the near term. With a lower stock price, buyers may end up not being able to pay as much as sellers now expect, says Schultheis, who covers the financial services sector for Boenning & Scattergood. Here’s his outlook on bank M&A, including the number of deals he anticipates will happen this year and whether big banks might be among the buyers.

Kopernik Bank and Liberty Bank of Maryland, both mutual thrifts in Baltimore, have agreed to merge. No money would change hands given the mutual-ownership structures involved in the deal.

Moven, one of the most talked-about startups of the fintech boom, is looking to spread financial education to the self-employed.

Green Dot reported a larger fourth-quarter loss on higher employee compensation costs and said it will book an extra $11 million in expenses to roll out a new card product.

A day after Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray told financial industry executives that Congress did not intend to exempt small institutions from most rules, several lawmakers begged to differ.

The private-banking prowess of newly acquired City National was the steadying influence Royal Bank of Canada needed amid global and domestic economic shocks in its latest quarter.

Carolina Alliance Bank in Spartanburg, S.C., has exited the Small Business Lending Fund program.

Commercial bank clients are increasingly looking to replace physical corporate cards with virtual ones to streamline bookkeeping and limit risk. The adoption of such solutions is a good sign for mobile payments overall.