Banking

The GSEs are the essence of highly leveraged, systemically important financial institutions, based on their size, interconnectedness and the lack of substitutability

Cardtronics has renewed its contract with Walgreens to be a preferred provider of ATM services.

Distressed-bank rollups were all the rage among private-equity and hedge fund investors in the early days of the financial crisis. The results have been decidedly mixed, as the following examples illustrate.

Charles H. Keating, whose leadership of a California savings and loan made him the face of a banking crisis and a millstone around the politicians who tried to help him, has died. He was 90.

Alamogordo Financial Corp. (ALMG) in Alamogordo, N.M., has agreed to pay more money to purchase Bank 1440 (BFFO) in Phoenix.

U.S. Bancorp in Minneapolis is rebranding its payment cards for small businesses under the name "U.S. Bank Business Edge."

Scrapping the "call-center-as-a-machine" model and the "customer-as-widget" mentality will allow organizations to make real progress in the battle for customer experience.

Sun Bancorp (SNBC) in Vineland, N.J., has selected its next chief executive.

The borough of Phoenixville, Pa. is reviewing whether to hire an outside collection agency to pursue the an estimated $1 million in unpaid water, sewer and trash bills.

Debt buyer Encore Capital Group Inc. announced it received regulatory approval to acquire a controlling stake in a management company that purchases credit portfolios and focuses on UK insolvencies and Spanish assets.

Hilltop Holdings (HTH) in Dallas has finally reached an agreement to buy the remaining shares in SWS Group (SWS) that it does not already own.

An upcoming Senate Banking Committee vote this month could be the tipping point needed for housing finance reform to actually happen — or it could signal yet more stagnation. American Banker editors discuss the political stakes and potential pitfalls as Congress attempts to change how the government supports the mortgage market.

PayStand has launched an online payments platform that allows a variety of payments modes, including Bitcoin, electronic checks and cards.

The effects of the financial crisis are still being seen in the behavior of credit card lenders and borrowers, a new report suggests. Lenders have lowered risk-taking and rates, but consumers are carrying lighter debt loads.

New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman's office announced agreements Tuesday with 10 businesses that will limit their marketing of title loans, a type of payday loan, to residents of the state.

The Los Angeles companies said Tuesday that the Federal Reserve Board has approved the $2.3 billion deal.

A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison and must pay $9.2 million for his role in mortgage and bank fraud schemes.

Wells Fargo is in succession-planning mode. CEO John Stumpf is moving CFO Tim Sloan, widely considered to be one of his potential heirs, over to run the wholesale banking business, and promoting securities head John Shrewsberry to replace Sloan.

Charles M. Williams, co-chief executive of CertusBank, has quit the Greenville, S.C., company amid allegations of gross mismanagement.

It's not all suits and pencil skirts in banking.