Banking

Bank of America Corp., the second- biggest U.S. bank, said profit declined 43 percent as it spent $4 billion to cover litigation costs, including a mortgage settlement with American International Group Inc.

Smaller banks are disproportionately affected by regulation, forcing some to consider selling or to rethink their strategy, two community bankers argued before Congress.

Farmers & Merchants Bank (FMBM) in Timberville, Va., plans a preferred stock offering to raise $9.5 million.

First Commonwealth Financial Corp. (FCF) in Indiana, Pa., has launched a new residential mortgage banking division.

WASHINGTON — A new analysis by the American Action Forum examines the cumulative costs and paperwork burdens of the Dodd-Frank Act roughly four years after the financial reform law's passage.

The industry is slowly turning to valuations based on earnings rather than tangible book value, raising concerns that banks might feel pressure to make short-term decisions and ill-fated acquisitions.

The Virginia and West Virginia bankers associations have intensified merger discussions and could combine into a single trade group by year's end, according to a report Tuesday from Richmond BizSense.

Investors Bancorp (ISBC) in Short Hills, N.J., has broken ground on the first of four new branches it plans to open on Staten Island in New York City.

Add JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon as a member of the league of extraordinarily optimistic bank executives, but a figure deep in his bank's quarterly report — a high utilization rate for commercial lines of credit — gives his predictions more credibility than his rivals'.

At a congressional hearing Tuesday, partisan lawmakers gave wildly divergent interpretations of the payment system crackdown.

Twenty years ago, the decentralized open architecture of the Internet was inspiring entrepreneurs worldwide to build products and services while skeptics rolled their eyes and wondered why anyone would want to use this slow, rudimentary, obscure technology. Jeremy Allaire, a veteran of the early Web days and now the CEO of startup Circle Internet Financial, sees parallels between that era and the current state of digital money.

Westamerica Bancorporation (WABC) in San Rafael, Calif., reported another decline in quarterly profits as low interest rates continued to reduce yields on loans and investment securities.

The Fed Chair tells lawmakers she's "very positive on the idea of having a community banker appointed to the Board," but against requiring it by legislation.

Many banks' legacy systems were built decades ago and are maintained by folks nearing retirement. The challenge for CIOs is finding talented young recruits who are as well-versed in old technologies as they are new ones.

Washington Federal (WAFD) in Seattle reported increased quarterly earnings after buying dozens of branches from Bank of America (BAC).

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has proposed tailoring its system for pricing banks' insurance premiums to correspond with new Basel capital requirements.

Security breaches exposing consumers' personal information are becoming larger and more frequent in New York, costing businesses more than $1.37 billion last year, the state attorney general's office said.

JPMorgan Chase Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, recently diagnosed with throat cancer, told analysts that the Wall Street bank has an "exceptional group of executives" who could replace him someday — but that that won't be happening any time soon.

Banks that want to stay ahead of the digital curve should consider hub-and-spoke branch models, products that blend digital and physical services and innovation labs that allow creative thinkers to experiment — and even to fail.

American Express (AXP) went on trial last week in Brooklyn over government allegations that its rules for merchants violate antitrust law. The trial, which is expected to continue until September, is merely the latest episode in the credit card industry's long-running antitrust battles. Here’s a look back at some of the most important antitrust cases involving the card networks.