Banking

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reached an $85,000 settlement Wednesday with a former Wells Fargo mortgage loan officer.

Coin-counting machines came into vogue in the 1990s when Commerce Bank started installing "Penny Arcades" in its branches throughout New Jersey. They were a huge hit for a while, but banks have soured on the machines in recent years as usage declined and maintenance costs increased.

Well before the mobile payments explosion, incumbents were already focused on how to respond to nonbanks "piggybacking" on banks' payments infrastructure. As the consultant behind a 1994 banking industry report on the threat put it, "there is no time for delay."

LendingClub, the online loan platform looking to restore investor confidence, is in talks with Citigroup to arrange more funding for the debts it arranges, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Academics are challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's study of auto title loans, calling the findings inconsistent with state data.

American Banker readers share their views on the most pressing banking topics of the week. Comments are excerpted from reader response sections of AmericanBanker.com articles and our social media platforms.

The $3.8 billion-asset company said in a press release Thursday that Lynne Fox will succeed Noel Beasley, who decided to step down after retiring from the Workers United union.

The credit rating agency argues in a new report that the financing arms of auto manufacturers are better positioned than banks to withstand a widely expected decline in used-car prices. The report also finds that the quality of auto loans made by banks has been declining.

Nicolet Bankshares in Green Bay, Wis., disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday that Robert Cera, who had shared the chairman, president and chief executive roles with Bob Atwell, was no longer at the company.

Academics are challenging the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's study of auto title loans, calling the findings inconsistent with state data. The study found that one in five borrowers who take out a short-term auto title loan end up having their vehicle repossessed. Some states report vehicle repossessions rates of between 6% and 11%.

Radius Bank in Boston has recruited a team to lead a national push into Small Business Administration lending. Among the new hires is Diane Gallion, a former executive at The Bancorp in Delaware, who will be national director of government-guaranteed lending at Radius.

Middlefield Banc Corp. in Ohio has raised roughly $11 million through several stock offerings.

A number of banks have faced pressure from shareholders to ditch plurality voting, where directors can keep their seats even if they fail to receive majority support from investors.

Consumers, especially millennials, increasingly prefer to do everything on their mobile devices, including signing up for services. But as banks start to open accounts for people whom their employees have never met, there are plenty of questions about whether they can tell real customers and crooks apart.

Homes owned by single men are more valuable and appreciate faster than properties owned by single women, according to an analysis from RealtyTrac.

Investigators are examining possible computer breaches at as many as 12 banks linked to Swift's global payments network that have irregularities similar to those in the theft of $81 million from the Bangladesh central bank.

The bank's new low-down-payment mortgage, an alternative to FHA loans, dispenses with the complex qualification requirements that have hampered recent efforts with low down payments by Fannie and Freddie.

WASHINGTON — A federal judge Thursday sentenced former Voyager Bank Chief Executive Timothy Owens to 18 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to obstructing a Federal Reserve examination of his institution.

The Federal Housing Administration's loan sales are drawing more attention after a recent critical report said it was resulting in vulnerable borrowers losing their homes.

In the ongoing melee between the two major players, strong authentication has been put on the backburner in favor of the respective economies of implementing chip card technology.