Banking

A task force convened by the Federal Reserve has made substantial progress in its first few months, but the path to real-time payment in the U.S. is still littered with challenges.

The acquisition would be Alerus' first since it bought Private Bank Minnesota in Minneapolis in June 2014. The Beacon deal would boost Alerus' total assets in Minnesota to about $771 million.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released its latest monthly consumer complaints snapshot, which highlights mortgage complaints.

While banks have significantly decreased their problem assets from their 2010 peak, sour credits remain much higher than in 2006. A number of banks have been reluctant to sell these assets because of low interest rates and a struggle to find better investments.

DD4BC, a group that threatens to knock out corporate websites unless it is paid off in bitcoins, has expanded its denial-of-service attacks on banks.

The Federal Reserve Board has approved enhancements to its automated clearing house service that will require its banks to process same-day payments.

Catskill Hudson Bank in Kingston, N.Y., has hired Orville Aarons as its president. Aarons, a former director at Naugatuck Valley Financial, had been working as a consultant to Catskill Hudson since April.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s student loan ombudsman has shared concerns over predatory practices in student loan repayment programs, comparing them to those that led to the mortgage crisis several years ago.

Codorus Valley Bancorp in York, Pa., has hired Dwight Utz as its chief operating officer. Utz succeeded Mike Allen, who resigned in March and is now executive-in-residence of The Graham Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies at Penn State University.

It's time for the Fed to stop giving deference to the banking industry and correct the industry's swipe fee increases on small-ticket transactions.

Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan gets to keep his chairman's title but still faces a major capital plan deadline in just a week and then will have to sort through the fallout from what has been a challenging third quarter for the entire industry.

Although new HMDA data shows no negative effects from CFPB mortgage rules that went into effect last year, industry representatives argue it isn't showing the full picture.

Circle Internet Financial, the Bitcoin services company and wallet provider, has become the first company to receive a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services.

New York's regulation of Bitcoin businesses is "still not perfect," a Circle Internet Financial executive says, but it didn't want to pull its services from the state as some have.

While Congress has been unable to pass housing finance reform, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have done a good job of adhering to some of the spirit of recent bipartisan legislation, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics.

CommonBond has expanded its student loan refinancing program to more than 2,000 universities at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

A number of state banking associations held their annual conferences in posh out-of-state locations this year as executives show a greater willingness to make travel plans.

Chile's Banco de Credito e Inversiones has received regulatory approval to acquire City National Bank of Florida, more than two years after the deal was announced.

Today, American Banker and BAI begin rolling out our annual FinTech Forward rankings of the top 100 technology providers to U.S. banks.

WASHINGTON — The number of mortgage originations dropped 31% to 6 million in 2014 due largely to a decline in refinancing as interest rates increased, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council.