Banking

Some homeowners in Oklahoma are charging Bank of America (BAC) with withholding insurance payments they say are needed for property repairs.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau "has been a good communicator" with the banking industry and "has done some positive things" but also has "a big job to do," says Bank of the West's Andy Harmening, a senior executive vice president and regional banking group head. Harmening discusses the advantages and pitfalls of dealing with the new regulatory agency at American Banker's annual Best Practices in Retail Banking Symposium.

JPMorgan Chase kicked off the first-quarter earnings season by announcing record profits, but the results did little to inspire investor confidence in bank earnings or diminish ongoing scrutiny of the bank's business and corporate structure.

Wells Fargo (WFC) is still betting big on the mortgage market it dominates, hiring lenders and support staff and aggressively courting first-time homebuyers as refinancings wane.

Bank of the Ozarks (OZRK) in Little Rock, Ark., reported higher quarterly earnings because of higher mortgage income.

Bank of the West is trying to expand its lending, even to small-business borrowers who are initially turned down for new loans, while managing risk prudently. Andy Harmening, a senior executive vice president and regional banking group head, discusses the bank's efforts to increase business but control risk. He spoke to American Banker at the annual Best Practices in Retail Banking Symposium.

"Why would you not take advantage of card and account data?" wonders On Deck CEO Noah Beslow in the first in a series of six profiles of promising fintech startups.

Lawyers for plaintiffs in a Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. antitrust case over interchange fees asked for final approval of a settlement along with $720 million in legal fees and $27 million in expenses.

Canada is now the second country offering consumers MasterCard Inc.'s MasterPass digital wallet, with an emphasis on e-commerce sites for travel, grocery and discount stores.

The GSE believes it can offer community banks another source of revenue by originating and selling agricultural loans.

Mitsubishi UFJ, Japan's biggest lender, plans to increase loans to energy and utility industries in the U.S. to capitalize on a recovery in the world's largest economy, President Nobuyuki Hirano said.

Flagstar Bancorp in Troy, Mich., has added two key executives: Hugh Boyle, a former chief risk officer at Washington Mutual, will have the same job at Flagstar; and Michael Flynn was hired as the company's general counsel.

Federal law gives President Obama the ability to remove the Federal Housing Finance Agency's acting director and replace him with one of three deputies, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office concludes.

Investors in search of yield are supporting a return to more aggressive, higher-risk transactions. Banks need the discipline of fixed underwriting standards to prevent mindless herding.

Elavon and Banco Santander confirmed their plan to launch a joint venture to provide merchant services in Spain.

Legislation to encourage sharing of information about cyber threats among companies and the government has won the backing of a technology trade group.

M&T Bank's purchase of Hudson City Bancorp faces a lengthy delay after regulators raised concerns about M&T's compliance with anti-money-laundering rules.

PLANO, Texas – Catalyst Corporate FCU, the corporate credit union conglomerate constructed from four corporates—three of them failures—disclosed some of the details of last year’s purchase and assumption of the remnants of WesCorp FCU, the one-time $34 billion California failure.

Wells Fargo (WFC) posted a 22 percent rise in first-quarter profit that beat forecasts as the company curbed expense growth.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest U.S. bank by assets, said first-quarter profit rose 33 percent, beating analysts' estimates as record low interest rates fueled mortgage-revenue gains.