Retail & Commercial

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a rule Friday attempting to clarify how it would use its Civil Penalty Fund, which holds money it collects as a result of fines against financial companies.

BNC Bancorp (BNCN) in Thomasville, N.C., plans to buy back its Troubled Asset Relief Program shares from investors who bought them in a Treasury Department auction last summer.

As mobile payments companies seek a receptive audience, many are turning their attention to restaurants. And the food industry, in turn, is increasingly receptive to putting mobile payments on their menu.

Patience is wearing thin among investors with banks' lack of prospects for producing returns, as a hedge fund official's call for the sale of American River in California shows.

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau works on finalizing mortgage rules, Kelly Cochran, the assistant director for regulations, says it is taking concerns about burdens on small lenders and access to credit "very seriously."

HCBF will merge BSA Financial's $168 million-asset Bank of St. Augustine into Harbor Community Bank when the deal closes, the companies said Friday.

Jacksonville Bancorp is preparing to offer shareholders the right to buy $5 million of stock. The $565 million-asset company said Friday that it will give shareholders the right to buy stock for 50 cents a share, the same pricing of a $50 million private placement in that concluded last December.

Hancock Holding in Gulfport, Miss., has raised the ire of analysts and investors in an unusual way — by unveiling a plan to cut costs over the next two years.

CSI Enterprises Inc. has its sights on the travel industry, offering businesses a way to track employee expenses with its new globalVCard mobile payment app.

SumUp, a London-based company that allows merchants to accept card payments on their smartphones, will enable iPad acceptance through a partnership with Revel Systems.