Retail & Commercial

Mortgage Network in Danvers, Mass., has opened its first office in neighboring Rhode Island.

A tax plan from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp would further limit the mortgage-interest break and end the deduction for state and local taxes, according to a nonpartisan congressional summary.

The country's biggest bank has called a halt to its branch-expansion strategy of a year ago. Instead, JPMorgan Chase this week said it would start building smaller, cheaper branches with fewer tellers and more technology, as well as more offices for financial planners to meet with its wealthiest clients. American Banker editors discuss JPMorgan's new branch strategy and what it could signal for other banks.

JPMorgan Chase is the first bank to adopt a new disclosure box for its prepaid cards, developed by Pew Charitable Trusts.

The Federal Reserve Board has released Metropolitan Bank Holding in New York from a January 2011 enforcement action.

In the FDIC's fourth quarter earnings report, the agency said loan buybacks fell to their lowest level in 5 years.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM:US) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS:US) were among 18 financial firms that agreed to stop participating in some surveys of analyst sentiment while New York investigates early access to the information.

The mortgage market has failed to shift from refinances to purchases as anticipated, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's latest weekly report on applications.

The most notable quotes from American Banker stories of the previous week. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations in the Comments fields at the bottom of each slide.

Jamie Dimon, who built JPMorgan Chase & Co. into the world's biggest investment bank, said threats to its dominance may come from Beijing, Silicon Valley and a San Francisco-based rival with a stage-coach logo.