Retail & Commercial

Consumer use of payment cards is very much in flux, and contradictory trends are making it hard for issuers to react.

When HSBC sold its branches in upstate New York, it created a big change with dozens of branches changing hands. Once the signs are changed, a number of community banks and regionals will have to work hard to keep business in those branches.

The Girl Scout troops are once again proving to be an ideal test case for mobile card acceptance.

Fees paid to outside auditors appear to have been relatively stable in recent years. So have legal expenses for smaller institutions since mid-2010, when the 2,000-odd pages of the Dodd-Frank Act became law.

A Chinese businessman who founded a rice-trading company made up a story about his $60 million acquisition of a Delaware bank. He has since been arrested.

Homeowners who faced wrongful foreclosure actions due to big banks' mortgage servicing failures are entitled to cash payments of as little as $1,000 to up to $125,000, according to new federal guidelines. But consumer advocates say that disparity is too wide.

With pilots nearly complete, mobile-imaging software provider Mitek Systems, perhaps best known for its check capture technology, expects the launch soon of similar imaging services to help users make payments instead of just deposits.

The Federal Reserve Board has entered into written agreements with two companies requiring them to serve as sources of strength for their banks.

North Carolina's Our State magazine is launching its own credit card with Greensboro-based NewBridge Bank.

What the investor fights at ECB and First California say about how hard it will be for struggling banks in prized markets to stay independent, and who is vulnerable.