Retail & Commercial

World Acceptance in Greenville, S.C., one of the largest providers of installment loans, said that its longtime chairman and chief executive will retire in September.

Washington Trust Bancorp in Westerly, R.I., has agreed to buy Halsey Associates, an investment advisory firm in New Haven, Conn.

Deals are still getting done in California, even though water issues continue to plague the state's economy. Still, buyers are finding themselves conducting more extensive due diligence to vet the markets and loan concentrations of targets.

More lenders of all types are taking an interest in factoring, or buying a company's receivables, as they fight for commercial clients. But the business is forbidding for new entrants: it's dominated by a handful of large companies, with intense competition from smaller nonbanks, and is closely tied to the volatile retail-sales market.

After a "landmark" first-quarter driven by mortgage origination gains, Flagstar Bancorp is counting on mortgage servicing and community banking to spur future growth.

JPMorgan Chase is eliminating voice mail for consumer-bank employees as part of a push by the biggest U.S. lender to trim $2 billion in annual expenses.

Pacific Commerce Bank in Los Angeles has promoted Gail Jensen-Bigknife to chief credit officer.

FICO discards incomplete and old credit history information for a good reason. The solution to today's credit-access problems is not to use this unreliable data but to turn to alternative data such as the payment of everyday bills.

Discover Financial Services in Riverwoods, Ill., said it will double cash rewards for certain customers for a limited period, its latest effort to battle with rival issuers for new business.

First Resource Bank in Exton, Pa., plans to raise $6 million through a combination of common stock and subordinated debt to raise funds to redeem most of its Small Business Lending Fund preferred shares.