Banking

Sales of U.S.-backed mortgage bonds soared to a three-year high as steps by the Federal Reserve and Obama administration to make home ownership more affordable propelled a 34 percent jump in refinancing.

Capital, cost-cuts and creativity. Those are three things banks, especially small ones, will need to ride out a period of low margins and stiff regulation until economic conditions improve, says BankUnited CEO John Kanas.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has sanctioned five firms for charging additional fees on municipal and state bond offerings to pay a lobbying organization.

An appeals court has revived a shareholder suit against terminal maker VeriFone over a restatement of its earnings in 2007.

Barclays, Sovereign and other companies are taking more control over the electronic gadgets their employees use, assigning them iPads and other devices instead of letting them use their personal tech at work.

Red River Bancshares in Alexandria, La., plans to expand into the Baton Rouge area with a deal to buy Fidelity Bancorp.

Developing and implementing programs that accurately detect consumer vulnerabilities in the marketplace is important to better manage risk at financial institutions and for public policy purposes.

In the most challenging banking environment in memory, BankUnited's John Kanas expects the winners to be those companies most adept at amassing capital, cutting costs and figuring out the innovation puzzle.

Payments processor TSYS will be able to offer a Square-like card reader to micro merchants now that its purchase of ProPay is complete.

OceanFirst Financial in Toms River, N.J., expects to increase its fourth-quarter loan-loss provision because of Hurricane Sandy and new regulatory guidance for borrowers who have filed for bankruptcy.

A new app from U.S. Bancorp lets customers obtain and manage a FlexPerks Visa card.

The industry returned to sustainable (albeit tepid) profitability this year and housing appears to have bottomed. Regulatory fines and litigation continue to cast a pall on the future, however.

The crisis gave financial innovation a bad rap. Don't let that stifle fresh thinking.

Wells Fargo won a partial victory in its appeal of an order to reimburse $203 million of overdraft charges. It can order debit transactions how it wants, but consumers still have a case that they were misled, an appeals court ruled.

Citi appears to be the latest victim of hacktivists.

Fraud and data security trends can change by the minute, often making it difficult to pinpoint a specific development as a key event during the course of a year. Not so in 2012.

Digital currency, especially Bitcoin, picked up in popularity this year as the concept began garnering positive attention from payment players — but a series of negative incidents kept the skepticism alive as well.

The $2.7 billion-asset parent of AnchorBank in Madison, Wis., said Wednesday it has prepaid $150 million in advances from the Federal Home Loan Bank System that were due in 2015.

The FDIC this year has filed more lawsuits against the officers and directors of failed banks than it did last year. That number is expected to grow again next year, and involve smaller institutions.

McDonald's is adding more tap-and-go acceptance at its payment terminals worldwide.