Banking

President Obama has nominated Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Editors discuss why the move has little chance of winning Congressional approval and is emblematic of Washington's housing reform dilemma.

Square has hired retail, consumer product and payments veteran Alex Petrov to be its vice president of partnerships.

The investors would inject $50 million into the struggling lender, the bank said Monday. U.S. Century would also sell its nonperforming loans, which totaled $95 million at March 31, to "unrelated third parties" for an undisclosed price.

Visa (NYSE: V) rode rising sales volume — particularly among users of its credit cards — to strong quarterly profits.

Wex Inc. announced its succession plan today, naming Melissa Smith, a 16-year employee of Wex, as president of the company. She will take over as CEO in January 2014.

MasterCard is planning to rapidly broaden the scale and scope of its digital wallet and prepaid card offerings.

The Kansas City company, which started with opening-day deposits of $1,100 in 1913, now has $15.7 billion in assets and a fresh formula that is allowing it to prosper with a conservative approach to credit.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., has agreed to buy four branches from Zions Bancorp.'s (ZION) California subsidiary.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman just can't wait for Edward DeMarco's reign at the Federal Housing Finance Agency to end.

National Mortgage Insurance is upending the traditional business model by underwriting every single loan it insures and promising not to ask lenders to pay claims on defaulted loans if the borrower had made 18 months of consecutive payments.

We must help carry forward the traditions of relationship banking while stressing the importance of technology adaptation and modern leadership.

IBC Bank in Texas, is bringing an environmentally friendly addition to the Austin skyline.

First Busey Bancorp (BUSE) in Champaign, Ill., reported a dip in quarterly profit as lending revenue fell and expenses rose.

HSBC Bermuda is giving its retail banking customers security devices that will display one-time passwords for online banking, according to reports.

Data-driven small business lending startup On Deck this morning announced a $17 million expansion to its Series D round of funding, bringing the round to $59 million.

Community Trust Bancorp in Pikeville, Ky., has a promoted a veteran banker to chief financial officer.

A technophile New Jersey community banker on why he believes in keeping up with changing mobile trends, cloud computing and going paperless.

Regions Financial in Birmingham, Ala., is taking steps to conform its capital to evolving regulatory requirements.

BOK Financial Corp. in Tulsa, Okla., reported a higher first-quarter profit due to loan recoveries and higher fee income.

A spate of denial-of-service attacks on 13 major banks has the industry scrambling.