Retail & Commercial

United Bankshares, in Charleston, W.Va., reported an increase in second-quarter earnings, in part because of its acquisition of Virginia Commerce Bancorp in Arlington.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued five corrective actions and three money penalties in June, according to the agency's monthly roundup of regulatory actions.

Interest rates for mortgages over $417,000 have fallen 11 basis points during the past six weeks, driven by competition among banks to win the mortgage business of wealthy, less risky borrowers and in turn, make them customers of other financial products.

Shares for Sterling Bancorp in Montebello, N.Y., rose after the company posted stronger quarterly income tied to its merger with Provident New York Bancorp.

Federal and state regulators have obtained $92 million in debt relief from Colfax Capital Corp. and Culver Capital LLC, collectively known as Rome Finance, for service members and others harmed by a predatory lending scheme.

Sun Bancorp in Mount Laurel, N.J., has agreed to hire four new executives, promoted another executive, and hired a technology consulting firm.

Ally Financial's second-quarter earnings swung to a profit from the previous year, boosted by returns from its auto lending business.

Banks are handing out mortgages of as much as $10 million to the wealthy in record numbers while first-time homebuyers struggle to get loans.

Like the Internet of the 1980s, today's payment systems are a mishmash of disparate, closed networks that cannot communicate with one another effectively. Distributed ledger technologies can solve this problem.

Several scams - including one involving debt collecting - are circulating in Pennsylvania.