Retail & Commercial

The FTC has provided its Annual Financial Acts Enforcement Report to the CFPB on enforcement and related activities regarding key industry regulations.

The warehouse retail chain's partnerships with LendingClub and SmartBiz illustrate how bank branches are becoming less relevant in the lives of small-business owners.

HomeStreet in Seattle has hired Melba Bartels as chief financial officer, filling a position that has been vacant since March 2012.

HSBC executives have suggested for months that big changes were coming to its U.S. unit, but the overhaul was less drastic than some had called for. The parent company's CEO defended the decision as necessary to preserve key funding sources and client relationships.

The company, once in the crosshairs of a community group for how it complied with the Community Reinvestment Act, is aiming to raise $200 million with other banks for a fund that will work with local leaders to identify the best way to invest in low-income and underserved neighborhoods.

Piper Jaffray has hired several more executives from Sterne Agee Group, as it expands its financial institutions group.

Evangelical Franklin Graham will move his ministries' funds to BB&T, in protest of a Wells Fargo ad that featured a lesbian couple, the Charlotte Observer reported.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's "qualified mortgage" rule has put a damper on the recovery of the housing market, according to an American Bankers Association survey.

James Sills, who runs a 107-year-old bank in North Carolina, believes the key to the survival of minority-owned institutions is their ability to adapt and reach more customers. M&F Bancorp, for instance, is changing the name of its bank and recently added its first nonblack director.

Foreclosures might seem like yesterday's news, but banks are still busy with the cleanup phase of the housing crisis. The situation is producing some herky-jerky housing statistics, and prompting calls for more reforms in states like New York still suffering from stalled dockets and blight.