Retail & Commercial

Like a lot of buyers, Southern Missouri Bancorp would like to acquire bigger banks, but in agreeing to buy Bank of Thayer and its parent for $6.5 million, its execs say they are being realistic and going for what is available.

Ambiguous language in the 2012 national mortgage settlement has caused widespread confusion about the legality of foreclosing on delinquent borrowers who have filed paperwork on mortgage modifications.

American Express (AXP) has hired Brett Loper, a top aide to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, to run its Washington office.

There’s no magic potion for providing low-income people with low-cost financial services. But the combination of technology, ingenuity and the capitalist incentive has solved many problems before.

Lenders are falling short in efforts to prevent discrimination in areas outside housing, the head of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau told members of Congress.

Daniel Walker made his way from working as an elevator operator at Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach to heading up the California company.

Bank of America is laying off hundreds of workers from a unit that services troubled mortgages.

Attorney General Eric Holder ruffled feathers in March when he indicated during Capitol Hill testimony that some financial institutions are "too big to jail." Holder later tried to backtrack amid a fierce public outcry. The controversy comes on the heels of claims by some critics that the DOJ and Obama administration have given the politically well-connected banking industry an undeserved free pass in the wake of the financial crisis. As the following examples illustrate, however, the government has acted aggressively in some cases to bring senior bankers to justice-senior bankers at small institutions, that is.

The Department of Justice faces a serious challenge to its aggressive pursuit of fair lending cases following a Supreme Court decision to hear a case involving the controversial theory of "disparate impact." American Banker editors discuss the implications of the high-profile case for banks and the rest of the mortgage industry.

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