Retail & Commercial

Ameris Bancorp in Moultrie, Ga., has agreed to buy Jacksonville Bancorp in Florida.

Pacific Premier Bancorp in Irvine, Calif., has agreed to buy Security California Bancorp in Riverside, Calif.

Wells Fargo, the world’s largest bank by market value, agreed to buy the bulk of a railcar- and locomotive-leasing unit from General Electric as the industrial giant retreats from financial services.

Park Sterling in Charlotte, N.C., has agreed to buy First Capital Bancorp in Glen Allen, Va.

In updating cards with EMV technology, Visa and MasterCard have neglected an important element of what makes the security standard so successful elsewhere. The need for PIN verification is clear.

Independence Bancshares in Greenville, S.C., has dismissed Gordon Baird as chief executive and suspended its development of a real-time payments technology.

Many card issuers are well on their way to the migration to chip cards or have a plan to do so. But many merchants are still completely unaware of the shift in fraud liability taking effect Thursday.

Avant, an online lending platform that focuses on borrowers with marred credit, announced an agreement Wednesday to raise $325 million in equity financing from blue-chip investors.

In comments to the Treasury Department, traditional financial institutions are calling for more oversight of an industry that is fast becoming a big competitive threat.

BB&T has rolled out a digital banking platform that lets customers customize which features appear once they log in. It saves the bank having to decide what to show and what to hide on devices with different screen sizes.