Retail & Commercial

Hampton Roads Bancshares (HMPR) in Virginia Beach, Va., has named Charles Johnston chairman.

AmeriServ Financial in Johnstown, Pa., has begun another stock buyback.

With the ever-increasing regulation burden, community banks with small staffs struggle to keep up with new and changing rules. Some have deployed software to streamline their compliance to-do lists. Bank of the Sierra in Porterville, Calif., is one of them.

The Federal Reserve has ordered Bank of Montreal's U.S. unit to strengthen compliance with laws designed to deter money laundering.

Sierra Vista Bank in Folsom, Calif., has added $1.5 million in capital from the Taylor International Fund.

Flagstar Bancorp (FBC) in Troy, Mich., announced that its chief executive, Michael Tierney, has stepped aside after just eight months in the post.

Whatever the outcome of Tuesday's vote over Jamie Dimon's dual titles at JPMorgan Chase, the debate raging at the country's largest bank will increase the pressure on bank boards to split up chairman/CEO roles in the future.

BitPay, which processes payments for merchants in the virtual currency Bitcoin, has attracted some investors with a pedigree in pioneering alternative ways to send and receive money.

Tim Ryan, a veteran lobbyist who runs JPMorgan Chase's regulatory strategy, served until January as chief executive of SIFMA, which moved last week to stop the sending of vote tallies to shareholders.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's focus on discrimination in the auto loan business will likely force the banks it targets to stop paying bonuses to car dealers that originate high-interest loans. Changing practices in the rest of the industry could prove tougher.