State officials in California have asked top online lending firms a series of probing questions regarding their compliance with laws and regulations dealing with referral fees, bank partnerships, fair lending and other sensitive issues.

We should all understand now that pure gain-on-sale marketplace lending businesses, like LendingClub, are inherently unstable.

A dozen directors were re-elected at Middleburg Financial in Virginia despite a protest from the company's biggest investor.

The abrupt resignation of the firm's founder and CEO, under a cloud, seems likely to fan investors' growing fears about the marketplace lending sector. It could also hasten regulatory scrutiny.

PL Capital, a big investor in Banc of California, is proposing that the Irvine company adopt majority, rather than plurality voting, for the election of directors.

Boston Private Financial Holdings is expanding its footprint in California, opening a new office in Los Angeles on June 1. The company will have 35 offices nationwide, including 14 on the West Coast.

A debt collection agency will pay civil penalties and be required to adopt new procedures to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

State Bank Financial in Atlanta just hired a lending team that will take its SBA lending operation to the next level. The moves comes as the SBA reports a record number of 7(a) loans.

The Clearing House, Dwolla and Ripple Labs are among more than 20 companies that are vying to play a lead role in modernizing the U.S. payment system.

At least three U.S. banks are preparing to go to market with new small-dollar installment loan products in a move that could potentially disrupt the payday lending industry.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s request for input on mobile financial services allows banks to promote how their mobile app helps the underserved, which is a plus when seeking merger approval.

The FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Friday concerning the use of modern dialing technologies when contacting consumers on cell phones about student loan debts, mortgages, taxes and other debts owed to or guaranteed by the government.

Farmers National Banc in Canfield, Ohio, has agreed to buy Bowers Insurance Agency in Cortland, Ohio.

LendingClub Corp. founder and Chief Executive Officer Renaud Laplanche resigned after an internal review of loan sales to a single investor. President Scott Sanborn will be acting CEO.

U.S. consumers sharply increased their use of credit cards in March, pushing up total borrowing at the fastest pace in 15 years.

Pennsylvania state regulators on Friday closed the $103.3 million-asset First CornerStone Bank in King of Prussia, the third institution to fail this year.

Square's practice of using its merchant transaction data for risk analysis may seem innovative, but other agile specialists — including Intuit — are finding ways to use new data streams to limit risk and deliver funds to borrowers.

Household borrowing surged in March at the fastest pace since November 2001 as financing for automobiles picked up and Americans' outstanding credit-card debt soared.

Many bank security people will undoubtedly shrug off Anonymous' claim that it's trying to bring down banks all over the world. There are a few reasons to take it seriously.

Maria Vullo, still stuck in limbo as acting superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, is hindered from putting her mark on the agency until she gets confirmed. So a quiet guessing game is going on about how her supervisory philosophy will compare with her predecessor Benjamin Lawsky.