Banking

Overdraft fees are criticized as unfair penalties for lower-income customers, but they are often better for consumers than getting purchases rejected.

Executives at the 90 institutions that made the ninth annual ranking are boosting benefits to attract new employees, amid intense competition for talent. They're also rethinking how they approach recruiting and increasing their diversity efforts.

Pomona Postal Federal Credit Union is the fifth institution for which the agency has taken this action this year.

Many of the consumers who embraced online and mobile channels during the pandemic are seeking help from human bankers more than ever, according to research from Cornerstone.

The Florida bank's agreement with the core provider FIS is expected to reduce annual expenses by $12 million. Analysts expect more banks to make similar moves.

The $457 million-asset Heritage Credit Union in Deforest has agreed to merge with the $3.7 billion-asset Connexus Credit Union in Wausau, forming a company with more than 420,000 members.

A new proposal to allow the Small Business Administration to offer credit directly would pull customers away from community lenders, writes the head of a credit union trade group.

With its agreement to buy KS StateBank’s residential mortgage operation, Kansas-based Armed Forces is going all in on home lending.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has raised “certain regulatory concerns” about Blue Ridge Bankshares, delaying its combination with FVCBankcorp well into next year.

Despite some bumps in the early days of the Paycheck Protection Program, small businesses report that they had positive experiences with lenders. Savvy banks are channeling the good vibes to generate more revenue from a sector that has sometimes been overlooked.

Hispanic adults are underbanked compared with their white counterparts, according to the Federal Reserve. Challenger banks such as Tend and Viva First are reaching out to this population with bilingual services and low-cost money transfers.

The Federal Reserve had made it easier for financial institutions facing COVID-19-related pressures to comply with the supplementary leverage ratio. The central bank ended that break last spring, but the industry says the market distortions that originally prompted Fed action persist.

Companies using only a person’s name and not other identifiers to screen job and tenant applications can produce inaccurate information, according to the bureau. The agency's advisory opinion said such practices violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Under the country's buyout rules, Carlyle now has until Dec. 2 to announce whether or not it will make a firm offer for the company.

Financial institutions say it would require them to overhaul their payments technology, deprive them of revenue and force them to pass added costs on to merchants and consumers.

The $323 million acquisition would give the Indiana bank a presence in affluent Oakland County and in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids.

OceanFirst Financial in New Jersey has agreed to pay $186 million to buy Partners Bancorp, which owns two banks that operate in the Washington suburbs and surrounding areas.

Digital upstarts like Square, Stripe and PayPal are invading community banks' turf by appealing to local merchants with a mix of electronic payments and lending. Small banks are fighting back by leaning into digital services while maintaining their personal touch.

Accrue Savings is introducing a savings account that is tied to specific retailers, allowing customers to gradually accumulate the amount they need to buy an item and earn cash rewards for making progress toward their goals.