Banking

Amazon.com Inc. has launched a Square-like mobile card reader called Amazon Local Register, charging early adopters just 1.75% per swipe until the end of 2015.

Fleet card provider FleetCor's planning a major push into B2B electronic payments, and hopes to get a substantial boost from its planned $3.45 billion acquisition of Comdata.

SunTrust Banks has appointed Paul Garcia, a former chairman and chief executive of Global Payments, to its board.

Tuesday's action against the alleged bait-and-switch mortgage-lending scheme includes two companies and the owner of both of them.

The bank M&A world can be challenging for private-equity vehicles because they trade lower than some of the more aggressive traditional buyers. Talmer Bancorp in Troy, Mich., announced a cash deal last week that pushed its stock up more than 5%, perhaps helping its hand in future stock deals.

First National Community Bancorp in Dunmore, Pa., showed that there is still life left in some charged-off loans.

Potentially higher legal costs are making it more difficult for banks to compete with those that have less demanding litigation settlements and regulatory penalties.

M&F Bank in Durham, N.C., has named James H. Sills III as its president and chief executive.

WASHINGTON — Amerisave Mortgage Corp. and its owner have been ordered to pay more than $20 million for allegedly overcharging borrowers and trapping them in higher interest rates than those advertised.

Diebold, best known as an ATM manufacturer, is rebranding and diversifying itself and promoting its consulting services on a popular banking topic: how to redefine branches as sales and service hubs.

Social media sites, including Twitter and Facebook, have been enticing but sometimes hostile environments for payments innovation. Some startups are pushing past the platform providers to appeal directly to their users.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has proposed forcing banks to identify those standing behind legal entity accounts, but also made a slew of accommodations meant to make the rule more palatable.

Even though refinance loans account for the majority of mortgage applications, the refi boom has long been over, and depressed origination volume will keep it that way for some time.

Bank Leumi is holding a two-day hackathon competition that is expected to welcome more than 100 technology developers, programmers, entrepreneurs and designers.

Centrue Financial in Ottawa, Ill., said Monday that it has agreed to sell $75 million of its common stock to the New York private-equity group Capital Z Partners.

Ocwen Financial, the largest nonbank mortgage servicer, said investors shouldn't rely on its financial statements for 2013 and the first quarter of this year as the firm's auditor reviews accounting controls.

A payday lending executive who New York prosecutors say violated the state's usury laws is set to be arraigned Tuesday in a Manhattan court.

ITT Educational Services Inc. has seen a large drop in its stock price and other woes amid a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau lawsuit and tightening regulatory scrutiny of for-profit colleges nationwide.

Security concerns are commonly cited as the reason for the lack of widespread adoption of mobile banking. But there is risk with every type of payment - lest we forget the growing list of recent major retailer and restaurant card data breaches.

In a speech Tuesday, the director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network will argue that recent guidance for banks regarding the marijuana industry is working as intended. But it's unclear whether banks' concerns about the risks have been addressed.