Banking

For ex-bankers like Ruth Porat, who is leaving Morgan Stanley for Google, free-flowing cash and a sunnier climate are only part of Silicon Valley’s allure, industry observers note. The tech sector is also mercifully light on regulation.

Wells Fargo announced the closure of a mortgage servicing site and the retirement of a longtime commercial banking executive Wednesday.

Atlantic Capital Bancshares in Atlanta has agreed to buy First Security Group in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The Justice Department's Clifford White is putting all mortgage servicers on notice that they too will be punished if they flout bankruptcy rules.

A top Democratic lawmaker said Wednesday that the compliance burdens placed on small and medium sized banks outweigh the risks they pose to the financial system.

Subprime auto lending has become a top priority for the CFPB, said Steven Antonakes, the agency's deputy director on Wednesday. He also revealed that it was open to making changes to its complaint portal, which the agency recently said would allow consumers to post detailed narratives of their problems with financial institutions.

March Madness office pools are in full swing. While sports analysts provide ample entertainment, their predictions have time and again forced me to shell out to my victorious colleagues. For this reason, I shut out the chatter and focus on the stats.

Spring is here, making it a good time to review banks' wide-ranging marketing efforts at all levels of baseball, from the majors to college.

Social media data offers banks a vast, relatively untapped source of insights about everything from marketing to identifying new customers, talent and potential risk management issues. The key is assembling a team that knows how to mine social media for information.

The economy has improved, and banks are doing a better job of making money, but activist investors are still putting pressure on certain community banks. Here is an overview of banks that are facing proxy battles in coming months.

The leader of the Senate Banking Committee said he'd rather leave Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in U.S. conservatorship than pass a bill that includes explicit government support for the housing market.

While a number of community banks are preparing for lock horns with dissident shareholders, a bank in Indiana managed to work with an activist to avoid a nasty brouhaha.

Southern Missouri Bancorp in Poplar Bluff has filed to sell $20 million in preferred stock it issued to the Treasury Department as part of the Small Business Lending Fund.

Amalgamated Bank of Chicago has sold its headquarters building for $35 million.

A mortgage relief operation has settled Federal Trade Commission charges that they illegally charged upfront fees for services they falsely promised would reduce consumers’ mortgage interest rates or monthly payments.

Under tough questioning on Capitol Hill, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Martin Gruenberg said the agency accepts blame for fallout over its "high risk" businesses list as an internal FDIC watchdog is still investigating.

Former Federal Reserve Gov. Jeremy Stein has agreed to consult for hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management, the fund announced Tuesday.

By poaching Ruth Porat from Morgan Stanley, it's clear Google wants to forge closer relationships with banks. That's because banks hold the key to helping Google expand its Google Wallet mobile-payments product.

Banks are gravitating toward a new technology they think can help customers more easily open mobile accounts: allowing customers to photograph their driver's license from their smartphone to help them auto-fill portions of their application.

American Savings Bank in Honolulu has agreed to a proposed $2 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit tied to its overdraft fees on debit card and ATM transactions.