Banking

The Justice Department's legal case against American Express will not benefit consumers and will weaken competition, said Jeff Campbell, executive vice president and CFO of American Express.

WEX Inc. is working to finalize several key acquisitions to bring the corporate payments provider into new markets.

First Data Corp. has agreed to buy Gyft Inc., which sells digital gift cards, in a move to advance the Atlanta-based processor's mobile payment offerings.

Tighter margins held back BOK Financial in Tulsa, Okla., last quarter. The $28 billion-asset company reported a profit of $76.7 million, down 4% from the same period last year.

Bank owners can make more objective decisions about whether it's the right time to sell by comparing the value of holding onto the bank to its private market price and instating an external review process, writes consultant J.V. Rizzi.

Lenders aren't keeping pace with a mounting backlog of applications for federal mortgage aid, placing some borrowers at increasing risk of losing their homes to foreclosure, according to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

BBVA Compass in Houston reported a drop in second-quarter earnings, partly because of a larger loan-loss provision.

Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., reported that second-quarter earnings declined because of a significant drop in noninterest income.

Community banks are disappearing and big banks' global power is on the wane. Regulators should take steps to reverse these trends so that all Americans have access to the financial services they need, according to the American Bankers Association's Wayne Abernathy.

A federal court has shut down a mobile phone cramming scheme that piled more than $100 million in charges on consumers’ mobile phone bills without permission.

Lindorff Espana, part of Oslo, Norway-based collections and credit giant Lindorff, has purchased the debt recovery unit of Spain's Banco Sabadell for $218 million, the companies announced this week.

The Justice Department's legal case against American Express will not benefit consumers and will weaken competition, said Jeff Campbell, executive vice president and CFO of American Express.

BJ's Wholesale Club is planning to convert its co-branded credit card program to chip-enabled MasterCards.

South State reported higher second quarter earnings compared to last year, as the Columbia, S.C., company expanded through the combination of SCBT and First Financial Holdings.

CIT Group's deal for OneWest is further proof that buyers are increasingly eyeing deposits, not assets, as they prepare for an increase in loan demand and look to position themselves for rising interest rates.

Victor K. Nichols, a former executive at Experian, has joined the board of the Bank of Hawaii in Honolulu.

S&T Bancorp in Indiana, Pa., reported higher second-quarter earnings driven by loan growth and a credit for its loan-loss provision.

Photo bill pay is supposed to make adding payees a snap for smartphone customers. But the feature faces some problems, including a lack of uniformity of the data on physical invoices and how consumers take the pictures.

The lender reduced its reserves in the second quarter despite an acknowledgement that chargeoffs will likely rise in the coming months.

Though satisfying examiners remains a priority, their decisions about how and where to deploy resources are being mostly driven by the desire to meet customers' changing demands, according to a new survey from the advisory firm KPMG.