Banking

The federal government is now even more involved in the design, pricing, allocation and servicing of home mortgage credit than during the subprime lending debacle. Current proposals that call for government involvement would further entrench this situation.

Bank of America (BAC) has agreed to pay the bond insurer MBIA $1.6 billion to settle a five-year-old dispute over losses related to soured mortgage-backed securities, according to news reports.

The hacker collective Anonymous has joined with groups throughout the Middle East and North Africa to vow a series of so-called denial of service attacks this Tuesday against financial institutions, other U.S. firms and government agencies.

Bibb Lamar opted to join ServisFirst rather than stay at Trustmark, which acquired BancTrust in February. His team will help ServisFirst expand in Mobile, Ala.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Monday that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac must restrict future mortgage purchases to "qualified mortgage" loans.

Innovation has been critical to the Kansas City, Mo., bank ever since it introduced the first drive-up window nearly a century ago. Chief executive Mariner Kemper and Chief Financial Officer Michael Hagedorn discuss their strategy for mixing proprietary and off-the-shelf technologies in their bid to keep a step ahead of the competition.

The Independent BankersBank in Dallas has hired a correspondent-relations officer to serve community banks in Michigan and Indiana.

Discover Financial Services and Network International, a Middle Eastern payment provider, have formed a strategic alliance to allow cross border card acceptance.

When experiments in lending are properly organized and priced, they can be successful for borrowers and lenders of all income groups, even in tough times.

The CEO of UMB Financial believes the time has come to rethink branch technology, to speed service and cut costs.

Vincent Delie recently mentioned Maryland, Pittsburgh and Cleveland as target markets, though he expressed lukewarm interest in Philadelphia.

Astoria Federal Savings in Lake Success, N.Y., has hired an HSBC executive to lead its retail division.

Cash transaction network PayNearMe announced the addition of six-year Wells Fargo veteran Billy Robins as vice president of business development.

Bank is letting small business cardholders create a tagged and searchable archive of receipts to help with billing tasks.

Wells Fargo and Bank of America have serially violated the terms of the National Mortgage Servicing Settlement, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleged on Monday.

Shareholders and regulators are on the warpath against executive compensation they regard as excessive or poorly structured. Senior bankers and directors, like their colleagues elsewhere in the corporate world, are struggling to design pay plans that encourage managers to innovate while discouraging excessive risk-taking. Further complicating the task are the sometimes competing agendas of investors and rule-makers, as well as the uncertainty surrounding the many Dodd-Frank pay rules yet to be written. Following is a look at some of hot-button items shaping executive compensation during the current proxy season.

State Employees' Credit Union will use Wincor Nixdorf's automated teller machine software.

Hearsay Social's new sales software pushes financial advisors to reach out to customers and prospects when they post personal news on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

HomeTrust Bancshares in Asheville, N.C., has agreed to buy BankGreenville Financial in South Carolina.

The improving bottom lines at credit unions across the country have been a dose of good news that is tempered by just one outstanding issue: how many more assessments will need to be paid to cover the costs of the failed corporate CU investments.