Banking

Acima offers lease-to-own plans on consumer items, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and New York officials are calling those plans credit. The battles, playing out in separate courts, could trigger more expansive protections for customers.

Currently sitting at 2,500, the in-store branch count appears fated to continue dropping, as customers opt for digital channels and banks shy away from models that emphasize overdraft.

NCR Atleos and Diebold Nixdorf are leveraging the rise of branchless financial institutions and putting pressure on traditional banks to maintain access to paper.

Chatbots and other non-human service options got lower scores in J.D. Power's annual survey on credit card satisfaction, despite years of shifting from call-center agents to software to address client problems.

A Northwest credit union announced plans this week to buy a community bank, lifting the 2024 total of such deals to 13 and putting the year on track to set a record. The all-time annual high of 16 was set in 2022.

The Chicago-area bank closed the fifth-largest deal announced this year in a matter of months. It may bode well for M&A, as several big transactions have been announced in 2024.

The change will allow the Wall Street firm's material risk takers to now earn a bonus that's as much as six times their base salary.

The dark secret about credit unions is that while rules have changed to allow them to make more commercial loans, their ability to underwrite those loans at scale is lacking. When the credit cycle turns, there's going to be a reckoning.

Some of the challenges Bank of Guam faces are unique. But its search for vendors and local talent will feel familiar to community banks across the U.S.

Though it hasn't set a timeline, Oxford Bank, based north of the Motor City, is weighing a southward expansion that would add all the Detroit metropolitan area to its footprint.

Pandemic era changes to credit reporting have dangerously distorted credit scores for mortgage borrowers. The market is in worse shape than we realize, writes a former Federal Housing Finance Agency director.

A judge postponed to Aug. 19 the scheduled sentencing date for Shan Hanes, the ex-CEO of Heartland Tri-State Bank who admitted to embezzling $47 million from the lender, leading to its downfall.

KeyCorp wasn't seeking capital but saw the benefits of Scotiabank's minority stake. The deal would enable the Canadian lender to step into the U.S. consumer market.

Fortuna Bank in Columbus would be the third U.S. bank specifically formed to be women-owned, according to its organizers. Supporters say it's another win toward obtaining gender-equitable capital access.

In a letter to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, the Democratic senators said he should "put on hold any plans" to raise fees on checking accounts due to higher regulations.

On the heels of a recent downgrade by one analyst, the Uniondale, New York-based Flushing is being challenged by veteran investor Larry Seidman to consider a sale of the company.

City National Bank of Florida is starting a national capital markets division, Orrstown Financial will close branches in Pennsylvania and Maryland, JPMorgan Chase unit announces in-store biometric payments and more in this week's banking news roundup.

The consumer lender has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to sell its credit card portfolio, which will simplify its business to personal loans and automated savings.

The pace of deal activity in 2024 is ahead of a year earlier, thanks in large part to summer momentum and a spate of all-stock deals. But an early August market rout created a new hurdle for dealmaking in the second half of the year.

Democrats Ritchie Torres and Gregory Meeks called on the New York Home Loan bank to follow the lead of its peers and use alternative credit scoring models for collateral to improve consumers' access to homeownership.