Banking

The bank formerly run by Steven Mnuchin, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to head the Treasury Department, allegedly used illegal practices in foreclosing on delinquent homeowners, according to a leaked 2013 memo from the California Attorney General's Office.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday levied more than $23 million in fines and restitution against two of the nation's largest consumer credit agencies, saying that the companies deceived consumers into paying for data that had little beneficial value.

First Midwest Bancorp will move its headquarters to Chicago from Itasca, Ill., next year. The $11.6 billion-asset company will open an 80,000-square-foot office in the spring of 2018.

The bank's new CEO, Onur Genc, fresh from Turkey, will have to find a way to leverage the considerable tech and innovation investments the bank has made and strengthen the brand's U.S. presence.

Both banks and fintech firms have a lot of questions about the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's proposed new charter, including exactly how the agency will ensure nonbanks don't get a leg up on bank competitors.

Shivan Govindan, chairman of First NBC Bank in New Orleans, has taken on the task of salvaging a bank that is reeling from accounting issues and a substantial capital requirement from regulators.

OptimumBank in Plantation, Fla., has been hit with an enforcement action due to concerns about its asset quality, capital position, compliance with anti-money-laundering regulations and other issues.

Engage Financial Technology, a provider of prepaid card programs for banks, healthcare providers, retailers and other organizations, has partnered with software provider Ensenta for a cloud-based approach to loading funds to prepaid cards.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's decision to offer a special-purpose charter for fintech firms may entice more players than expected, including mortgage lenders and even some payday lending shops.

From the industry repercussions of Trump's election victory to the rise of the robots in financial services, these are American Banker's most popular stories of 2016.

Capital One Financial in McLean, Va., is facing regulatory delays as it looks to buy a credit card business from outdoor equipment chain Cabela's.

Welcome to the new PaymentsSource Morning Briefing, delivered daily. The information you need to start your day, including top headlines from PaymentsSource and around the Web. Today: China starts a fintech investment fund; Trump says computers are unsafe; Topps gets breached; The U.K. plans a new coin.

Proponents of "recap and release" misread the political risks and the depth of interest that key lawmakers have in determining the long-term future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Hancock Holding in Gulfport, Miss., has agreed to buy nine branches and about $1.3 billion in loans from First NBC Bank in New Orleans.

The phony-accounts scandal at Wells Fargo illustrates how sales quotas can incent bad behavior. Is your bank effectively mitigating the risk of 'managing to metrics'? Or could it be in danger of becoming a 'cargo cult'?

As you plan for the coming year — and beyond — here are some challenges and opportunities worth thinking about.

As you plan for the coming year — and beyond — here are some challenges and opportunities worth thinking about.

Even in a digital era, human connections still matter. That is one big disadvantage for fintech startups and increasingly for banks as customers stop making regular branch visits. So it is instructive to hear SoFi's thinking on how to overcome this challenge. It is trying some unorthodox tactics to better understand the people behind the data and to create meaningful connections with them.

From Dimon's campaign against earnings guidance to the bottom-line implications of rising rates, here are more of our favorite stories of the year. (See part I here.)

So much of the blockchain hype has dwelt on the efficiency it could bring to the financial system, but finding ways it could make money would excite more bankers about the nascent technology.