Banking

Establishing contactless card payments in taxicabs in Barcelona, Spain provides another indication that La Caixa Bank intends to make the city a case study for new payment methods.

Fannie Mae and Ginnie Mae are seeking to protect taxpayers as a flood of new lenders apply to do business with them. That's also helping big banks' profit and blunting Federal Reserve efforts to boost housing.

Three banks failed Friday – including two in Florida – and will cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. an estimated $86 million. Regulators seized the $200 million-asset Excel Bank in Sedalia, Mo.; the $159 million-asset GulfSouth Private Bank in Destin, Fla.; and the $67 million-asset First East Side Savings Bank in Tamarac, Fla.

Anonymous, a group saying it's one of the organizations behind the recent cyberhacktivist attacks against banks, says it obtained 20,000 debit card details from the U.K. HSBC bank.

First Financial Northwest in Renton, Wash., a $973 million-asset company, lost $791,000 in the third quarter, compared to net income of $1.4 million in the second quarter and profit of $623,000 a year earlier.

A group of nine retailers asked a federal judge to approve a multibillion dollar settlement of a lawsuit challenging the way banks and credit card networks set interchange fees.

A group of nine retailers asked a federal judge Friday to approve a multibillion dollar settlement of a lawsuit challenging the way banks and credit card networks set interchange fees.

First Niagara, a Buffalo, N.Y., company, has grown significantly through recent acquisitions but now it wants to cut expenses. Management plans to then reinvest those funds in fee-generating businesses.

Federal regulators are reviewing banks' growth plans, particularly those that include third-party companies. To avoid excessive scrutiny, industry experts advise banks to proactively discuss such relationships with examiners.

First Horizon Financial National (FHN) saw its stock fall almost 5% in early trading Friday after announcing a $30 million charge tied to loans where the borrower has liquidated debts in bankruptcy court.

Regulators have announced the winning bidder for assets of failed Tennessee Commerce Bank.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has just finished work on a new supply chain finance module for its CashPro Online banking channel for corporate clients.

After two official presidential debates without much discussion of the mortgage sector, the issue finally came up in a late-night television interview.

If proposed mortgage rules are too rigid, banks will have little choice but to restrict lending. But if they are ill-defined or too loose, banks say they face higher compliance costs and increased risk of litigation.

Borrowing by homeowners and improving credit quality boosted third-quarter profits at BancorpSouth (BXS) of Tupelo, Miss. The $13.2 billion-asset company said late Thursday that its earnings doubled, to $23.8 million, compared with a year earlier.

With the growing prevalence of card products such as Walmart's Bluebird, the availability and disclosure of the types of safeguards against loss of customer funds is fast becoming a hot topic.

The director selection model for too many U.S. banks does not reflect the industry's risk profile realities of 2012.

Daniel Schulman at American Express and Daniel Eckert at Walmart defend their new Bluebird account against critics who argue the product should have FDIC backing.

Steven Antonakes, the chief of supervision, enforcement and fair lending at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, brings a track record of fairness to an agency attacked for being hostile to banking.

E-Trade Financial's (ETFC) shares plummeted Friday after the company reported a $28.6 million loss for the third quarter as its provision for loan loss rose and revenue declined.