Retail & Commercial

Pacific Mercantile Bancorp in Costa Mesa, Calif., promoted Robert Sjogren to be chief operating officer of the holding company and its bank subsidiary.

The Federal Reserve is making clear that the status quo, in which U.S. electronic payments take days to complete, is not going to hold, an industry analyst says.

Tight credit standards and student loan debt may be holding back the housing market, but equity research analyst Ivy Zelman thinks that homeownership will pick up along with the cyclical recovery. Banks are already "incrementally easing" their requirements for mortgage applicants with credit scores above 660, she says, and banks need to "fill the void" left by the refinancing slump.

Citigroup has promoted Peter Charrington to global head of Citi Private Bank.

BB&T has agreed to buy the Bank of Kentucky for $363 million in cash and stock. The acquisition would allow the $188 billion-asset BB&T to expand in the northern Kentucky and Cincinnati region, where the $1.9 billion-asset Bank of Kentucky operates 32 branches.

Alliance Data Systems announced what it described as a long-term agreement to issue credit cards for the Midwestern grocery store chain Meijer.

The Iowa Credit Union Division has placed Louden Depot Community Credit Union in Fairfield, Iowa, into receivership.

A recent study suggests that credit card issuers' marketing practices show evidence of racial bias. The good news is that self-tests can help lenders fix fair lending compliance issues, according to Rich Walker of the Winterberry Group.

Global Cash Access Holdings Inc., a provider of cash solutions to the casino industry, agreed to acquire Multimedia Games Holding Co. for $1.2 billion in cash, gaining a creator of electronic-gaming units to American Indian casinos and lotteries.

National Penn Bancshares in Allentown, Pa., plans to raise $100 million through a debt offering.