Banking

Nine global banks are testing blockchain and smart contract technologies to see if they can improve the syndicated loan market.

Lenders are starting to bring artificial intelligence into their lending processes. Some wonder whether the machines can make rational, unbiased choices.

New York MTA has put business with Wells Fargo Securities and approval as a senior manager for bond transactions on hold pending its review of the bank’s practices, following revelations that Wells Fargo bank employees secretly created accounts without clients’ approval

Aquiline Capital Partners, a New York-based private equity firm focused on investing in financial services and financial technology companies, announced Tuesday the creation of a new holding company that will acquire businesses focused on developing software used to manage and collect payments from groups and organizations.

Bank of Southern California in San Diego has agreed to sell $7 million of its common stock to the asset management firm Castle Creek Capital.

The parent company of the consumer lender LendUp has been fined more than $6.3 million by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the California Department of Business Oversight for overcharging borrowers and violating payday and installment lending laws.

Concerns about cross-selling run deeper than the risk of misbehavior. The practice also has a questionable economic rationale.

The move is an example of how banks are looking to fintech entrepreneurs to bring innovation in, and it illustrates the emphasis and importance banks are putting on their mobile channels.

The $13 billion-asset company, formed by the merger of BBCN Bancorp and Wilshire Bancorp, said in a press release Monday that it will close 12 branches in southern California, New York and New Jersey as part of a broader cost-cutting effort.

First Merchants Corp. in Muncie, Ind., has agreed to buy a minority stake in Independent Alliance Banks in Fort Wayne, Ind.

A bipartisan duo of lawmakers announced Monday they are forming the Congressional Blockchain Caucus in an effort to educate policymakers on digital currency and related issues.

The investment bank's annual ranking of midcap all-stars includes 10 returning all-stars from 2015 and 11 newcomers.

Debbie Matz, a former chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, has joined the board of Mutual of Omaha Bank in Nebraska.

American Express can prohibit merchants from steering customers to credit cards with lower transaction fees, a federal appeals court ruled in a case involving about $50 billion of merchant fees annually.

Technology? Bankers can keep up. New regulations? We've got people to handle that. But how to account for the flight of customers, prospective employees and economic opportunities from rural areas is perhaps the biggest challenge facing community lenders and policymakers, warns a longtime Oklahoma banker.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday fined a large auto title lender $9 million for failing to disclose the terms and costs of its title loans in three states, and for illegally exposing consumers' information to their employers.

Park National in Newark, Ohio, has agreed to pay $500,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that its loan-loss accounting underplayed credit problems at a troubled acquisition.

Triumph Bancorp in Dallas plans to issue $50 million in subordinated debt and said proceeds from the offering may be used for acquisitions.

The $2.2 billion-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing that it redeemed $12.2 million, the remaining half of its SBLF shares, on Sept. 22 at a liquidation value of $1,000 each for $12.4 million.

Brookline Bancorp in Boston said James McCarthy will succeed Russell Cole next month as president and CEO of First Ipswich Bank.