Banking

De novo activity has remained at a trickle and the reason is investing in a new bank just isn't attractive as it used to be.

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.

A car dealer and its financing arm will pay a $6.4 million fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for allegedly providing inaccurate information to credit reporting firms.

Hancock Holding in Gulfport, Miss., will increase its allowance for loan losses by $42 million to cover weakness in energy-related credits.

The $350 million-asset Pacific Commerce said in a press release Thursday that it will pay $10.50 a share in cash and stock for the $211 million-asset ProAmerica.

The $3.4 billion-asset holding company for Five Star Bank received a letter on Wednesday from Clover Partners' managing director, Johnny Guerry, saying management has made the wrong decision on two recent deals. Clover owns about 5.2% of Financial Institutions.

TriState Capital Holdings in Pittsburgh has agreed to buy asset management firm Killen Group in Berwyn, Pa., for between $30 million to $35 million in cash, based on conditions tied to the asset manager's cash flow.

FIS in Jacksonville, Fla., has partnered with the Venture Center to create an incubation lab to boost innovation in financial technology.

The legal status of marijuana is likely to shift dramatically next year, with around ten states considering some form of decriminalization. But banks will likely have a longer wait until the rules around serving marijuana businesses are cleared up.

Moven will soon prompt its customers for usernames and passwords only for riskier transactions. By removing the login for most functions, the company aims to drive engagement in an app meant to be used on the go.

Ramamurthi has transformed a 123-year-old institution with one branch serving a dusty Kansas town into a seedbed for disruptive financial technology — not to mention a wildly profitable generator of fee income.

KeyCorp will keep and expand First Niagara Financial Group's Buffalo, N.Y.-based mortgage operations to spur along its return to being a player in residential lending.

Wells Fargo in San Francisco said that its chief information officer will retire at the end of March.

The success of a new blockchain-technology initiative will hinge on the ability of many influential players to work together: IBM, Digital Asset Holdings, R3, other tech companies, banks, Swift, the London Stock Exchange and the Linux Foundation.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered payday and pawn lender EZCorp Inc. to pay $10.5 million for alleged illegal debt collection tactics.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Thursday that it had fined one of the largest dealer-finance companies, CarHop, $6.5 million for inaccurately reporting consumer credit data.

Digital Asset Holdings is reportedly seeking a $35 million funding round that would put the blockchain technology startup’s valuation at $100 million.

LifeLock Inc. agreed Thursday to pay $100 million to settle FTC charges that it failed to properly protect its customers’ data and misrepresented the strength of its security. It's the largest order enforcement case to date to come out of the FTC.