Banking

Furthering efforts to bring virtual currency mainstream, cryptocurrency companies and trade groups are teaming up to create a forum to aid law enforcement in weeding out criminal activity.

Third-quarter results have been decidedly mixed: while the largest banks have been knocked off balance by volatile markets, many regionals have charged forward.

WASHINGTON — Credit risk is once again taking center stage with regulators after several years in which they warned banks about operational risk and other threats.

"We are reaching that point in the cycle where credit risk is moving to the forefront" of regulatory concerns, Comptroller Thomas Curry warned Wednesday.

Community & Southern Holdings in Atlanta used private equity to buy 14 banks over six years. The time had come to become a seller and give those investors an opportunity to eventually cash out.

American Express Co., the credit-card issuer grappling with the loss of its biggest partner, posted third- quarter profit that missed analysts' estimates as expenses rose and revenue declined.

Dime Community Bancshares in Brooklyn, N.Y., said that Kenneth Mahon will succeed Michael Devine as its president on Jan. 1.

The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau warned software vendors that they face new scrutiny from regulators for causing mortgage lenders to miss the TRID-compliance deadline. He was vague about how far the CFPB might go, but many in the industry are prone to fear the worst.

Combing through data to find people who’ve paid for something twice or left their cash at the ATM helps the bank build goodwill with customers, says analytics chief Christian Nelissen.

Washington Federal in Seattle reported higher profit in its fiscal fourth quarter, citing a record level of commercial loan originations.

OnDeck Capital, Lending Club, Funding Circle and Kabbage in the last week have all announced moves designed to boost their loan volumes.

The Georgia company is ready to return to buying banks, but it isn’t looking for a game changer. Rather, management wants to ease into consolidation by acquiring a smaller institution.

First Partners Bank in Birmingham, Ala., and Highlands Bancorp in Vernon, N.J., have both issued subordinated debt, as part of their plans to exit the Small Business Lending Fund program.

The ACLU filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday accusing Biloxi, Mississippi officials of jailing people if they did not pay their court fees and fines.

Regions Financial in Birmingham, Ala., said its longtime head of operations and technology, Cindy Rogers, will retire at the end of the year.

Both forecasts call for growth in home purchase volume over the next few years, but the decline in refinance originations will be so steep that overall origination volume will decrease.

Regal Bank in Livingston, N.J., isn’t letting its privately held status deter it from pursuing acquisitions.

In Minnesota, Anoka-Hennepin School District officials plan to hire a collection agency to pursue approximately $160,000 in unpaid breakfast and lunch money.

So many banks are running systems that were implemented before 1984, the year Mark Zuckerberg was born. They’re going to be dead meat in the age of real-time connectivity in the near-free world of today’s mobile Internet.

NerdWallet said former Citigroup banker Simon Williams is joining the consumer finance startup advised by Vikram Pandit, swelling the ranks of senior financiers helping the company.