Banking

Two Midwest community banks plan to close a total of 11 branches and record charges to pay for the shutdowns.

Citizens Building and Loan in Greer, S.C., will have a new president and chief executive next year.

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: Black Friday's mobile record; SF transit got hacked; ransomware goes social; Navy's lost laptop.

The election results will only intensify factors making competition with bank lenders more difficult, including the effect of interest rates as well as the regulatory environment.

A combination of slick technology and sleek design has led to the creation of a whole new take on the "branch of the future" at America First Credit Union.

Capital One Financial in McLean, Va., is splitting up the management of its cards business.

Payday lenders are seeking a court injunction to stop what they say is a concerted effort by federal banking regulators to cut them off from the mainstream financial system.

Most blockchain vendors have been competing against each other for banks' business, but if the technology's true value lies in its interconnectedness, vendors will have to keep embracing open-source software and collaborate even more.

James Cope, a former Pinnacle Financial Partners director who pleaded guilty to insider trading in October, was supposed to pay a $55,000 fine as part of a plea deal. But the judge hearing the case contends he should pay more.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency's decision to raise conforming loan limits in 2016 for the first time in a decade is being met with enthusiasm from the mortgage industry, as it should prove to be a positive for future origination volume.

The Pennsylvania company has redoubled its outreach to low- and moderate-income consumers by partnering with Operation Hope on a down payment assistance program and naming a veteran banker to the newly created post of director of fair and responsible banking. But despite these efforts, history says Fulton is unlikely to escape punishment if the Justice Department finds that it violated fair-lending laws.

Ping-pong tables, latte machines and other neat frills don't attract millennials as much as companies like to think, according to Melissa Louis, managing consultant at The Gallup Organization, which has done massive surveys in this area. "The biggest thing millennials really care about is development," she says. "Are they going to be in an organization where they will be consistently coached, where they can see a path for themselves in the future, regardless of what role they're starting in?

An Israeli startup in the emerging B2B2C space that allows consumers to make payments through major messaging apps has completed a $6 million round of funding backed by Banco Santander, Mastercard and other investors.

The longtime CEO of Oconee Federal Financial in Seneca, S.C., is handing the reins to his son. Curtis T. Evatt, Oconee's president and chief financial officer, will succeed T. Rhett Evatt as CEO of the $484 million-asset holding company and Oconee Federal Savings and Loan Association on Jan. 1.

Belmont Savings in Massachusetts isn't trying to fire or replace its employees who work the phones pursuing sales leads, but it has made some technological investments to get more out of them.

Hopes are high among bankers that soon-to-be President Donald Trump and the new Congress will quickly lower the corporate tax rate. But a tax overhaul might benefit community banks and small regionals more than larger banks, especially those reliant on tax strategies that might be less meaningful in a new system.

The information you need to start your day, including top headlines from PaymentsSource and around the Web. In today's briefing: Klarna saves Cookies' crumbs; Walmart tests blockchain, Amazon embeds payments in appliances; Apple revisits Black Friday

Big banks are still levying overdraft charges. New technology startups can stem the tide and help digitally-savvy millennials manage payments and their budgets.

Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, said it plans to add 1,000 jobs by 2024 at a new office complex in Columbus and lend $300 million to low- and moderate-income communities in the city over the next five years.

Consumers flooded Twitter and downdetector.com with complaints that Bank of America's teller system was down Tuesday afternoon.