Retail & Commercial

The operators of a fraudulent collection scheme will be banned from the collection business under a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, resolving charges that they illegally processed more than $5.2 million in payments for phony debts.

The third quarter ends in two weeks, and top executives at Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and two regional banks are raising concerns about cost pressures, impediments to revenue growth and heightened lending risks.

The $3.4 billion-asset company plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, possible acquisitions and capital investments in Bridgehampton National Bank.

The $2 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that Douglas Glenn resigned as president and chief executive. Glenn, who was 48 as of the company's April 27 proxy, also resigned as a director. He had been the chief executive since August 2011.

A Federal Reserve decision is expected soon on M&T's long-delayed application to buy Hudson City Bancorp. M&T would still get strategic benefits it sought, but Hudson City has shrunk and become less profitable since it agreed to sell three years ago, and the cost of the deal has risen.

It remains unclear if a new platform from the Chicago Board Options Exchange will provide enough incentives and safeguards to prompt community banks to switch from using the existing federal funds system.

Alliance Data Systems has agreed to work with Toyota on a new line of private-label credit cards and to manage the Japanese automaker's existing co-branded card program.

Among other reasons for seeking their own charters, the U.K.'s so-called challenger banks say they need to avoid being beholden to older institutions that can slow down the creative process.

CircleBack Lending, a Boca Raton, Fla., marketplace lender, has completed a $17.4 million round of equity financing.

Visa's ATM biometric trial in South Africa has the potential to spread a security technology that has encountered resistance in other parts of the world, including the U.S.