Retail & Commercial

KeySavings Bank in Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., has promoted a vice president to chief executive.

Colony Bankcorp in Fitzgerald, Ga., has redeemed about a quarter of its shares in the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Bruce Fenton, executive director at the Bitcoin Foundation, opened its Dec. 15 board meeting with a sense of urgency: "We need additional funds if we wish to retain employees." The numbers didn't look good. In two years, the foundation had seen at least $7 million evaporate. As of Nov. 30, its total assets stood at $12,553.06.

Relations between banks and providers of personal financial management tools have soured of late amid reports that some banks block PFM sites' access to their customers' information during peak traffic periods. Aggregators say they are working to address banks' concerns, but they also are urging banks to invest in more server capacity to keep pace with customer demand.

Recent comments by Russell Golden, chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, raise questions about the board's plans to change bank accounting standards.

Emclaire Financial in Emlenton, Pa., has agreed to buy United-American Savings Bank in Pittsburgh for $14.1 million.

A new digital currency backed by gold is billing itself as a more compliant, liquid and ultimately reliable store of value than decentralized systems such as bitcoin.

Several organizations, such as Swift and The Clearing House, announced faster payments initiatives this year. Those initiatives will likely play critical roles in 2016 in helping the Fed plot ways to modernize the U.S. payments system.

As small, digital donations propel insurgent candidates from Ted Cruz to Bernie Sanders in the U.S., one opposition party an ocean away is relying on old-fashioned pocket change to fuel its rise.

Nasdaq Inc. said it used blockchain technology to complete and record a private securities transaction for the first time, as the exchange operator seeks to pull ahead of a crowded sector that so far has offered more hype than reality.