Retail & Commercial

In a piece on The Clearing House website, Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said the culture fostered by top executives can have more to do with creating problems at banks than individual bad decisions.

The Salt Lake City bank has formalized programs to help employees who are in the reserves or have active-duty spouses and children deployed far from home. Its efforts range from raising funds for a family with a severely injured son, to hiring a landscaping firm to mow the lawn of an employee in need.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has issued an unpublished opinion in Lynn v. Monarch Recovery Management Inc. that supports a ruling that the agency violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Prosperity thought it had its bases covered, adding a clause in an employment agreement with lenders at an acquired bank in Oklahoma establishing Texas law as the jurisdiction for the contract. A judge disagreed in a decision that should get the attention of banks eyeing out-of-state deals.

Everything is on the table — including the table — as banks accelerate their efforts to trim real estate costs. Options range from subleasing branches that are too large to finding professional investors who will buy the branches and lease back a portion of them.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) hired senior bankers from Rothschild and Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) for its investment banking business in the Middle East.

The Mortgage Bankers Association continues to push back against regulations stemming from the financial crisis, as the industry's biggest lobbying group continues pushing for regulatory relief to bolster the housing market — and boost profits for its members.

AT&T Mobility LLC will pay $105 million to settle multi-agency charges it illegally billed third-party charges to consumers nationwide, federal authorities announced Wednesday.

The Offices of Minority and Women Inclusion should require financial institutions to perform regular, standardized and data-driven assessments of workforce and supplier diversity.

Heritage Financial Group in Albany, Ga., has agreed to buy a branch in a northeast Atlanta suburb from PrivateBancorp.