The Chicago-area company has started financing employee stock-ownership plans as a way to eke more business out of commercial clients.

A combination of low yields and loosening terms may be setting banks up for trouble in the event of an economic downturn, one of the nation's top credit ratings agencies said Monday.

Bankers truly face a Catch-22 in the lending business these days, thanks to "qualified mortgage" and disparate impact laws.

Hudson Valley Holding Corp. in Yonkers, N.Y. , has named Michael Indiveri its chief financial officer.

First Merchants is buying CFS Bancorp in a deal that would create a $5.6 billion-asset Indiana bank.

The gradual erosion of net interest margins and a compensatory shift toward risky new lending strategies for additional yield is a major factor for high chargeoffs and community bank failures.

JPMorgan Chase's leading directors urged shareholders to reject calls for Jamie Dimon to relinquish his dual role as chairman and chief executive officer, saying it "could be disruptive" and against the best interests of investors.

Regulators on Friday seized two banks owned by the $1.6 billion-asset company. The failures could tangle the Lansing, Mich., company in what the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. calls the cross-guarantee liability, meaning that the agency has the ability to charge Capitol's nine surviving banks with the cost of the failures.

BankUnited handed out free ice cream and metro cards at its new Manhattan branches to build branch recognition.

A North Carolina bank that had belonged to the long-troubled Capitol Bancorp was closed by state regulators on Friday.

First NBC Bank Holdings in New Orleans is looking to sell $100 million worth of shares in its initial public offering.

Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., is looking to raise $75 million in a stock sale and intends to use the proceeds to fund organic growth and acquisitions.

Shares of TriState Capital (TSC) in Pittsburgh rose slightly during their first day of trading.

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition and other consumer groups say the bank regulators did not go far enough in proposing changes to Community Reinvestment Act examinations.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Congress are pushing for fixes to the student loan market, but some of their proposals are focused on the relatively small portion of loans made by banks and other private lenders.

After a relatively busy April, the number of critically undercapitalized banks is down to just a handful. The pool of failure candidates could increase, but buyers should start looking elsewhere, industry observers say.

Two shareholders of MainStreet Bank (MNSB), in Herndon, Va., have reportedly asked investors to push for a sale of the $271 million-asset company.

Though large banks have mostly been the targets of criminals so far, smaller banks are not immune to online threats.

David Marshall is executive vice president and CFO of Docking and Union State Bank, its $241 million-asset subsidiary, the company announced Friday.

Home Federal Bank of Hollywood has hired a new chief executive with experience guiding troubled Florida lenders. The $59.4 million-asset bank named Robert Brookes CEO last month, according to an online report in the South Florida Business Journal.