Banking

The bank's approval last year to buy OneWest Bank included a condition to submit an updated Community Reinvestment Act plan, but the CRA program now being presented by CIT is far from adequate.

PRA Group's fourth-quarter financial results reported Thursday showed drops in both revenue and income and mixed news for cash collections.

The former chief executive of a Georgia community bank that participated in the Troubled Asset Relief Program was sentenced to prison and fined $3.9 million for hiding the bank's past-due loans and committing other fraud.

Regulators’ focus on having banks and credit unions offer payday loan alternatives to underserved consumers overlooks the success of Web-based companies in filling credit gaps.

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.

Understanding how consumers pay their debts over time is expected to widen access to credit for consumers recovering from financial problems or who were hard to score before. Just how many it will benefit is an open debate.

After the financial crisis led to a long nationwide drought in the creation of new banks, the second de novo bank application in less than a year has been submitted in California.

Delinquencies are rising among the sector's less creditworthy borrowers, which is contributing to smaller returns for investors. This sets up the first major test for an industry that blossomed during a period of unusually low defaults.

Tech giants like Intel and Apple are doing more business with women- and minority- owned underwriters; Christine Lagarde has five more years at the IMF; and why Lehman Sisters might not have failed. Plus, are girls getting a bad rap from dictionaries and bad counsel from parents?

The FBI's fight with Apple over access to a locked iPhone could undermine software security for financial institutions and their technology vendors and make it harder for banks to do business internationally or use cloud computing.

The Independent Community Bankers of Minnesota said Jim Amundson will be its next president and chief executive.

The Sixth Circuit recently upheld an Ohio federal court's decision to throw out a Telephone Consumer Protection Act suit brought by two hospital patients.

Two big Canadian banks reported quarterly results on Thursday.

Preparing for the inevitable future credit crisis by setting aside more loss reserves is a step toward avoiding government bailouts.

Professional race car driver Scott Tucker has pleaded not guilty in New York to charges in a payday lending scam.

Though bank analysts like Matthew Schultheis generally expect M&A activity to continue at a brisk pace for several years to come, stock market volatility could prove to be an issue for potential dealmakers in the near term.

County Bank, the holding company for the $324 million-asset Lapeer County Bank & Trust, said in a press release that it will pay $20 million, or $27 a share, in stock for the parent of the $245 million-asset CSB Bank.

Debt held by consumers in the U.S. as they age is rising, according to an analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Community banks can't win on size, but their values give them an upper hand in competing against cookie-cutter megabank branches.

Though bank analysts like Matthew Schultheis generally expect M&A activity to continue at a brisk pace for several years to come, stock market volatility could prove to be an issue for potential dealmakers in the near term. With a lower stock price, buyers may end up not being able to pay as much as sellers now expect, says Schultheis, who covers the financial services sector for Boenning & Scattergood. Here’s his outlook on bank M&A, including the number of deals he anticipates will happen this year and whether big banks might be among the buyers.