Retail & Commercial

No digital wallet can reach ubiquity if it is limited to big-box stores. Mobile solutions have to percolate down at the local coffee shop as well, where they can become part of the customer's daily grind.

Hackers seeking cardholder data most often find openings in a small merchant's payments network because of something a third-party vendor did or did not do when installing payment applications.

Treasury announced that it had appointed two directors to Ally Financial's board of directors, noting that the firm still owes money it borrowed from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Home BancShares, in Conway, Ark., has agreed to pay $1.4 million for Premier Bank in Tallahassee, Fla. Premier's parent is in bankruptcy proceedings, which could spur rival bids for Premier.

Federal regulators issued proposals on Wednesday that would make home appraisals essentially compulsory in certain cases before banks can approve a loan.

The rules for mortgage servicing were written primarily for the largest players, but it is the smaller ones that will have the hardest time absorbing the costs.

EverBank's announcement this week that it has set up a division to lend to golf equipment makers is the latest example of a bank trying to distinguish itself as a niche lender. Whether banks acquire units or start them from scratch - usually by wooing away rivals' lending teams - the objective is the same: Offset weak demand for traditional business and consumer loans.

The market for mortgage securities backed by the U.S. government is the smallest in three years, bolstering the value of the debt and potentially expanding the effects of any new buying by the Federal Reserve.

Two years after converting the preferred shares it owned in Sterling Financial (STSA) into common stock, the Treasury Department is now looking to sell those shares on the open market.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have expanded efforts to get refunds on soured mortgages, boosting the cost of faulty home loans and foreclosures at the biggest U.S. banks since 2007 to at least $84 billion.