Retail & Commercial

We asked bank chief financial officers what advice they would give their younger selves. Here is what they wish they'd known when they started their careers.

U.S. banks rebounded in the first quarter as earnings rose 6.9% from a year earlier, to $39.8 billion, and nearly two-thirds of institutions reported higher profits from a year earlier, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey’s office filed a lawsuit Tuesday against a Florida collection agency for allegedly trying to collect unverified and non-existent debts.

The explosive growth of largely unregulated online lenders has given them new opportunities to prey on unsuspecting borrowers.

Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., has agreed to buy CNLBancshares in Orlando, Fla.

MutualFirst Financial in Muncie, Ind., is facing pressure from an activist investor to explore a potential sale, even after the bank earlier this year agreed to implement a demand made by the same activist.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau officially delayed issuing new debt collection rules until at least December, after originally expecting “pre-rule activities” to last through this past April.

A small Austin, Texas, bank, formerly called Libertad, had to abandon its initial plan to target unbanked Hispanics. But it has made the most of its second chance by finding a niche in lending to real estate investors. Now it's looking to diversify.

The Sunshine State is once again outgrowing the rest of the country and some of its community banks are eager to become the state’s next flagship. Florida has changed a lot since the old Barnett Bank held that title, and so has banking. But now its thriving homegrown contenders aim to reshape the fragmented banking landscape, which is dominated by out-of-state rivals.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is increasingly brandishing a post-crisis tool allowing it to label activities "abusive," but whether financial services firms are closer to understanding the term is still up for debate.