Retail & Commercial

Is it time to abandon promotional pricing? Stop pursuing the underbanked? Link executive pay to reputation? Our ideas are sprouting like a pop-up bank branch.

Forget Times Square and champagne toasts. For the chief executive of American Savings Bank in Portsmouth, Ohio, New Year's Eve was all about courting business.

Regulators are hoping to release an interim final rule next week designed to satisfy banker demands to change a provision of the Volcker Rule that threatens to force smaller institutions to take millions of dollars in write-offs.

Square 1 Bank in Durham, N.C., has bought Sand Hill Finance, a finance company based in the Silicon Valley.

Cecil Bancorp (CECB) in Elkton, Md., plans to deregister its common stock from the OTC Bulletin Board and stop reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Fred Joseph retired from overseeing banks and securities firms last month. In a wide-ranging interview, he reflected on his career and provided perspective on the future of the banking industry.

Under Fincen's March 2013 guidance, companies that transmit virtual currency must register as money services businesses. De Castro was unsure whether his investment company would be treated the same way. According to the letter from Fincen, its rules are not meant to apply to De Castro's business.

Central Valley Community Bancorp in Fresno, Calif., has redeemed $7 million of preferred stock issued to the Treasury Department under the Small Business Lending Fund.

Bank-focused investment firm Jacobs Asset Management has bought a 5.25% stake in LCNB (LCNB) in Lebanon, Ohio.

So far, the big mortgage servicers have received stellar report cards for their compliance with the $25 billion national settlement. That could change this year as testing gets tougher -- potentially costing these companies further embarrassment and penalties.