Banking

The FDIC issued four consent orders against banks in July, after doling out three a month earlier. The agency used to hand out 10 or more a month.

WASHINGTON — State regulators closed First Commercial Bank in Bloomington, Minn., late Friday in the industry's 41st failure this year.

The ATM manufacturer announced late Friday afternoon that it has acquired Transoft International of Cary, N.C. in an effort to bolster its cash management software services.

Ralph Babb, the chief executive of Comerica in Dallas, tells a research analyst the company may consider in-market and out-of-market deals — its first since taking over Sterling Bancshares last year.

Regulators lifted an enforcement action against Anchor Bank in Lacey, Wash., and replaced it with a softer one.

Investors and analysts cheered SunTrust's decision to boost reserves for Fannie and Freddie repurchases, prompting speculation that other lenders could follow suit.

Discover is pushing aggressively to be at the heart of many mobile-payments initiatives. It's doing a lot that its rivals are not — but there are a few ways it might lose ground.

Mortgage Resolution Partners, the firm pushing municipalities to seize loans for borrowers owing more than their homes' values, said it would expand its proposed program to include delinquent and defaulted debt.

William E. Griffin, a founder and former chairman of Hudson Valley Holding (HVB), has died, the company said Friday. Griffin was 79 and had suffered from a long illness.

Under pressure from a regulator solely focused on protecting the consumers' financial interest, many banks have started abandoning suspect practices. Let’s keep it that way.

Colony Financial (CLNY) in Los Angeles seeks to raise as much as $150.9 million through a common stock offering and use the funds to repay a revolving credit facility.

An educational computer game from Visa and the National Football League allows players to move up and down the field and score points by correctly answering questions that test their financial literacy.

Forrester's new digital sales rakings laud the performance of Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Capital One, and say the new frontier of web sales calls for improvements in merchandising and onboarding.

Royal Bank of Canada, the country's largest lender by assets, agreed to buy the Shoppers Optimum credit-card portfolio from Bank of America to extend its MasterCard offerings.

Bank of the James Financial Group (BOTJ) in Lynchburg, Va., has raised $10 million through a private placement of unregistered debt.

Unpredictable card terms and conditions make it hard for small-business owners to budget. If they can't allocate funds with confidence, they're less likely to hire employees, hurting the economy.

Charles Collum, a former chairman of Virginia's oldest bank, will run a loan office in the north of the state for John Marshall Bank.

BankAtlantic's former parent is officially no longer regulated as a financial holding company. The Fed released BFC Financial and affiliate BBX Capital from being registered as a thrift holding company.

M&T's bid for Hudson City has the deal world abuzz with talk of who'll be next. The Fed, meanwhile, is trying to calm angry community bankers as the entire industry mulls the implications of the November election.

Retail credit unions can improve their net worth only through retained earnings. That's made a stressful period for all financial institutions particularly challenging for this category. Let them raise capital.