Banking

The government appears to be speeding toward establishing uniform standards for student loan servicers in light of reports of pervasive problems in the administration of both private and federal loans.

Allowing branch employees to become personally involved in marketing and merchandising tends to make them more engaged as salespeople.

Great Southern Bancorp in Springfield, Mo., has agreed to buy 12 branches around St. Louis from Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati.

The CFPB has released a report outlining widespread servicing failures reported by both federal and private student loan borrowers. Consumers describe companies using various sloppy, patchwork practices that create obstacles to repayment, raise costs and contribute to further harming struggling borrowers.

OFG Bancorp in San Juan, Puerto Rico, will record a pretax loss of roughly $21 million after its sells all remaining nonperforming assets from its 2010 purchase of the failed Eurobank.

Bank of Hawaii in Honolulu is getting out of the aircraft leasing business.

Get a bunch of community bankers together and they start sharing efficiency ratios like golf scores. There seem to be more bogeys than holes in one these days in the course of cost-cutting.

Credible, a comparison shopping site for private student loans, announced that it has raised $10 million from a group of investors that includes some big names in marketplace lending.

Cloud Lending Solutions, a technology provider to marketplace lenders and other finance companies, announced that it has raised $8 million in venture funding.

The embattled Bancorp in Wilmington, Del., has named Steven Turowski chief risk officer and submitted some previously delayed financial reports that shed more light on its financial condition.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working with other regulators on examiner guidance to help ensure that the agencies enforce new mortgage disclosures in a "corrective" manner, not a "punitive" one, Director Richard Cordray said Tuesday.

Lawmakers from both political parties on Tuesday sharply criticized the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's attempt to restrict or eliminate auto dealers' ability to markup a loan by citing their partnering lenders, arguing it would result in higher prices for consumers.

UBS Financial Services of Puerto Rico has agreed to pay $34 million to settle charges by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that it failed to supervise a former broker who had customers invest in UBSPR affiliated mutual funds using money borrowed from an affiliated bank.

The government appears to be speeding toward establishing uniform standards for student loan servicers in light of reports of pervasive problems in the administration of both private and federal loans.

A long-expected change to the rules for provisioning against bad loans is coming soon, and opponents are going on the offensive, arguing that it is impractical and would be especially hard for small banks to comply with. But few concessions, if any, are predicted.

A new study indicates that careful evaluation of the current regulatory environment is necessary to ensure that the debt collection and debt buying industries are allowed to fulfill their role in the U.S. economy.

Anchor Bancorp in Lacey, Wash., is facing a renewed proxy battle from activist investor Joel Lawson 4th ahead of its annual shareholders meeting in late October.

Thirteen banks have joined an alliance to develop commercial applications of distributed ledger technology in the financial industry.

Bank of America plans to lay off about 200 employees in global banking and markets, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

Some critics argue that it's a bad idea to introduce chip cards without PIN requirements. But this debate is a distraction from the payments industry's robust and multifaceted efforts to fight cybercrime.