Banking

Committees serving an independent organization seeking to help the U.S. payments industry prepare for its conversion to EMV smartcard and contactless technology have begun examining key aspects of the transition.

Citigroup has gotten rid of almost $500 billion in unwanted assets since the financial crisis, but executives say it still has work to do.

While Comptroller Tom Curry made it clear that regulators will not back down from a push for higher capital levels, he suggested the agencies are considering other ways to reduce the burden of the Basel III proposal for community banks.

Mortgages guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs reached their highest level since 1994 after rising by 50% in the most recent fiscal year.

The Indianapolis retail bank is placing NCR's APTRA Interactive Tellers in the lobby and drive-thrus of most of its 25 locations, according to an NCR spokesman.

ReadyForZero, a personal financial management provider, has deepened its offerings to allow users to pay off their bills.

The payment terminal maker said it's made a pact with Israel's largest card issuer and acquirer, Isracard, to distribute VeriFone's Sail card readers for iPhones and Android devices to Israeli merchants.

TD Bank (TD) says it has misplaced personal information belonging to more than a quarter of a million customers.

Fundtech, a Jersey City, N.J. bank technology company, has introduced CASHplus Mobile Corporate Banking for tablets.

The mood was buoyant and bankers seemed game to invest in customer-focused technology at BAI's Retail Delivery Conference last week.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit against Morgan Stanley (MS) on Monday, accusing the investment bank of encouraging a subprime lender to make risky loans to African-American borrowers in Detroit.

Businesses long to escape Excel hell and automate their cash flow predictions, according to research sponsored by Bill.com.

Visa began offering its V.me digital wallet this week with PNC, the first of more than a dozen bank partners it has lined up.

U.S. intelligence officials have alleged that Iran's government is behind the recent wave of distributed denial of service attacks against American banks. Iranian officials, however, deny the claim.

Grow Financial FCU is trying a novel approach to lure passersby into its branches: an interactive video wall that plays a game with people outside, in which they can win cash.

The complexity of Basel III is irrelevant to 90% of U.S. banks and should not be imposed on them. If rejecting the rules altogether is not considered politically feasible, a sensible alternative would be to simply exempt all community banks from its requirements.

Citigroup Inc., the third-biggest U.S. bank, reported a surprise profit of $468 million for the third quarter, helped by a $582 million tax benefit and bond- trading revenue that beat analysts' estimates.

The asset management unit for Fifth Third Bancorp has agreed to sell some assets to three of its executives.

Banco Santander SA's decision to abandon its 1.7 billion-pound ($2.7 billion) purchase of 316 Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc branches may prompt the U.K. lender to keep them or seek more time to find a new buyer.

The U.S. migration to the EMV secure chip-card standard has been so slow that some have compared it to the country's adoption of the metric system. But after years of delays, the mobile-wallet craze changed the rules.