Retail & Commercial

Anticipation of rising interest rates has stirred more talk among mortgage lenders about the need to originate loans to borrowers with low credit scores. Mortgage lenders like Angel Oak Home Loans in Atlanta argue there is a distinction between the subprime products being pitched today and the infamous stated-income loans of yore.

The Portland, Ore., company is pitching its technology as a way for banks to enter digital lending without sacrificing their relationships with customers.

The $9.8 billion-asset Great Western said in a press release Monday that it will pay about $140 million, or $19.70 a share, in cash and stock for the $1.2 billion-asset parent of Home Federal Bank.

Did your community bank successfully complete a tech initiative this year? We would like to hear about it for possible inclusion in our upcoming special report on the Top Community Bank IT Projects.

Broadway Financial Corp. in Los Angeles has been released from an enforcement action requiring it to improve its corporate governance.

Darien Rowayton Bank used funds from a 2010 recapitalization to start refinancing student loans in a move that, so far, has been lucrative for the institution.

Evans Bancorp in Hamburg, N.Y., has hired John Connerton to become its chief financial officer.

The amount of people with loans transferred to collection agencies or debt management has more than doubled in the fiscal year ending in September.

One week after the city of Peoria, Ill. issued an edict that $1.8 million in delinquent parking fines were being sent to a state-run collections program, city officials are reporting strong early returns.

Financial Institutions in Warsaw, N.Y., has agreed to buy Courier Capital, an investment advisory firm in Buffalo, N.Y.