Retail & Commercial

Consumers' growing confidence about their ability to qualify for a mortgage is generating more foot traffic, sales orders and loan volume for some of the nation's largest homebuilders.

Some community banks stick with rigid or outdated policies out of habit. That winds up hurting them when customers take their business to financial institutions that use technology to make transactions more convenient.

The Federal Communications Commission fined Travel Club Marketing $2.96 million in what the agency is calling the largest robocall punishment to date.

Banco Santander SA and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA, Spain's top two banks, said last month they'd start charging non-customers about 2 euros ($2.19) a time to use their ATMs, joining CaixaBank SA, the third-biggest bank, which began levying the fee in March.

The longer the CFPB waits to implement tighter regulations for the payday lending industry, the more Americans will find themselves trapped in a cycle of unaffordable debt.

Fidelity National Information Services, a provider of banking and payments technology, agreed to buy software maker SunGard Data Systems in a deal valued at $9.1 billion, including the assumption of debt.

There are many concerning aspects of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's methods, not the least of which include its proclivity to regulate via enforcement and its reliance on overly broad and ambiguous languageto support its activities.

United Bancshares in Columbus Grove, Ohio, said its chief financial officer, Diana Engelhardt, has decided to resign.

Presidio Bank in San Francisco has named Larry Nibbi, a minority owner of the San Francisco Giants, to its board.

First Northwest Bancorp in Port Angeles, Wash., lowered its previously reported results for its recently completed fiscal year because of an accounting error.