Retail & Commercial

Facebook is seeking to strengthen the nonadvertising side of its business by enabling users around the world to make payments on the social site in local currency and letting application developers charge on a subscription basis.

Capital One Financial (COF) has settled a longstanding legal dispute with former executive John Kanas.

Deals in Texas were pricey and plentiful in the first five months of the year, new data show. The state set the pace for rapid bank consolidation once before, and it could do so again.

The Treasury Department plans to auction pools of securities in nearly two-thirds of the banks left in the Troubled Asset Relief Program, its most aggressive move yet to get small banks out of the program.

For community bankers, it was always a romantic notion, the idea that they could give mortgage lending short shrift and beat the big guys on commercial loans. Mortgage lending is looking pretty good to these bankers now.

Richard Hunt, who assumed leadership of the Consumer Bankers Association three years ago as its president, has now been named the chief executive officer for the group.

Financial stocks rose Tuesday after federal housing regulators said they were revising guidelines that could reduce lenders' risks of having to buy back soured mortgages that have been securitized.

First Security Bank of Bozeman, Mont., has named a longtime employee as its new president and chief executive.

Premier Community Bank in Marion, Wis., announced Tuesday that it is expanding into central Wisconsin with a deal to buy four branches from Baylake Bank (BYLK) of Sturgeon Bay, Wis.

Discover has started originating mortgages after buying Tree.com's home loan unit, but executives say the lender will be slow and "sensible" about expanding the business.