Retail & Commercial

Black and Hispanic mortgage borrowers had lower credit scores and higher default rates than Asian and non-Hispanic white borrowers, according to analysis released Wednesday by the Federal Reserve Board.

The Central Bank's surprise decision to continue buying mortgage bonds may not spark another refinancing boom, but it could spur more home purchases.

TD Bank is content with its branch network along the East Coast and, for now, is not interested in deals that would take it into new markets, according to its chief financial officer.

The Treasury Department will receive $91 million from its latest auction. The agency announced plans last week to auction nearly $118 million of securities from several small banks.

Bank card originations increased sharply last quarter, reaching their highest level since the financial crisis as more creditworthy customers took out new cards.

Bank CEOs John W. Allison, Ed Wehmer and David Zalman blended good-natured banter with insights on breaking the $10 billion-asset barrier, the danger of bank buyers paying too much and changing attitudes about M&A at an industry conference this week.

The year's Most Powerful Women in Banking special report contains good news and bad. On the positive side, women are making progress in the upper reaches of banking and finance. The trouble is that they still have a long way to go before achieving gender equality. The reasons are complex.

Community banks should do some serious soul searching about their mortgage operations as they approach the CFPB's January implementation deadline.

A former senior commercial loan officer at the failed Bank of the Commonwealth in Norfolk, Va., has been sentenced to 17 years in federal prison for hiding bad loans from regulators.

With proposals afoot in both chambers of Congress, and President Obama moving the issue to the forefront, we can dramatically modernize our country’s housing finance system.