Auto lending

Big banks began ceding market share to midsize and small subprime auto lenders, who they said were taking too many risks. Now prominent midsize player Santander Consumer is putting on the brakes and complaining about small, overly daring rivals. How bad a sign is that?

Profits fell double digits at Santander Consumer USA Holdings in Dallas in connection with its exit from the personal loan business and other nagging issues.

Ally Financial reported strong loan and deposit growth in the first quarter, but a shift in the makeup of its automobile loan portfolio forced the Detroit company to nearly double its loan-loss provision from a year earlier.

TCF Financial in Wayzata, Minn., reported sharply higher profits driven by gains on the sale of auto loans even as auto-related chargeoffs rose.

Ally Financial has blasted a proxy advisory firm for its recommendation that shareholders vote against the re-election of four of the Detroit company's directors.

B of A is normally thought of as a U.S. economic bellwether, but it has substantial operations overseas, and its international performance last quarter provided a painful reminder of that fact.

The world knows JPMorgan's quarterly profits fell and that it flunked the living wills test. But underneath all that were solid first-quarter results in its core lending businesses that bode well for other banks at the start of earnings season.

The deal to buy TradeKing would allow the online-only bank to offer wealth-building products to its roughly 1.1 million depositors. The additional low-cost deposits could also help fund loan growth as it looks to expand beyond auto lending and into mortgages and credit cards.

GOP lawmakers and witnesses at a Senate Banking Committee hearing pointedly criticized the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday, setting the stage for a likely contentious hearing with the agency's director later in the week.

Ally Financial announced Tuesday that it had agreed to buy the online brokerage firm TradeKing Group for approximately $275 million. TradeKing, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has roughly $4.5 billion in client assets.