Banking

Residents of this city's troubled west side finally have access to mainstream financial services, thanks to a unique partnership between a credit union and a church.

After years of borrowing branch design ideas from retailers, one expert is advising credit unions to think like web designers.

Looking to change your members' behavior? One person says it starts with the branch-but the branch can only take you so far.

If there's one design element Andrea Simler-DeGolier recommends CUs stay away from, it's posters.

American Express and Wal-Mart launched the Bluebird card last October. By January, it had over 575,000 account holders and $275 million in funds loaded onto the cards. Eighty-five percent of Bluebird customers are new to Amex, and 45% under 35.

Banco Santander SA, Spain's biggest bank, named Javier Marin as chief executive officer to replace Alfredo Saenz, who resigned.

Folks often ask me how we come up with ideas for the stories published in American Banker Magazine. My answer is that there are all kinds of ways, and this issue perfectly illustrates several of them.

The top 200 community banks and thrifts as ranked by three-year average ROE.

The success of early microfinance programs has attracted big money, and big problems, to the business. A new study details how the mission of microlending has gotten off track, and why helping impoverished women is getting harder to do.

State Street's David Saul argues big data is better when it's smart data.

Generations Bank CEO stops in for coffee, steps out with idea for new auto loan program.

Retail bankers are stuck at multiple crossroads, trying to determine the future of their businesses with conflicting sets of directions.

Be proud, Gen-X bankers. You are the "hybrid" breed of old school and new school in an industry that needs both, consultant Richard Henry writes.

JPMorgan Chase's Elaine Agather, RBS Citizens' Daniel Fitzpatrick and other bankers who take community engagement to a new level.

Many companies in the payments industry have strong, influential women as top executives. These women rarely had a clear path ahead of them when they started out.

JPMorgan Chase loses another top exec as co-chief operating officer Frank Bisignano leaves to run payment processor First Data. The move further consolidates power with Matt Zames, whose rapid ascent will in leave him as the sole COO.

TAMPA, Fla. – Suncoast Schools FCU plans to open a new environmentally friendly branch in Fort Myers next month – its second new branch in three months after a five-year hiatus on branch building.

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. – Chartway FCU last week purchased an 83,436-square-foot, four-story building in nearby Virginia Beach for $11 million.

WICHITA, Kan. – Lawyers for more than a half-dozen Wall Street banks on Friday joined together in an unusual motion to urge the federal court here to stay proceedings in the various civil suits NCUA has brought against them until a federal appeals court has decided whether the credit union regulator waited too long to bring claims for the failure of five corporate credit unions.

Regulators shut down Douglas County Bank in Douglasville, Ga., and Parkway Bank in Lenoir, N.C. Between them they had assets of $425 million and will cost the Deposit Insurance Fund an estimated $105 million.