Republic Bancorp in Louisville, Ky., has agreed to buy Cornerstone Bancorp in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Robo-advisers have myriad conflicts of interest and fall short of the standard of care under fiduciary investment law. The Labor Department's endorsement of these algorithmic investment guides seems curious and misplaced.

Fifth Third Bancorp has agreed to pay nearly $85 million to settle fraud charges related to undisclosed defective Federal Housing Administration-insured loans.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's impending proposal, to be reviewed by a small business advisory panel, would block companies from using arbitration clauses to avoid class actions but allow them for individuals.

MBT Bancorp in Monroe, Mich., is planning to close four branches. The $1.3 billion-asset company also said it would stop offering retail services at a corporate office in Wyandotte, Mich.

A pair of community banks have lined up funding through separate subordinated-debt agreements with a firm in the Cayman Islands.

The central bank originally established a 10-year time horizon for completing upgrades to the nation's aging electronic payment system. But a task force convened by the Fed thinks that's not ambitious enough.

Independence Bancshares in South Carolina last week fired its CEO and gave up its dreams of shaking up the payments world after losing nearly $9 million on the effort. Many details are still unknown, but it looks like a case study for what can go wrong when community banks invest in technology.

Despite their major push to overhaul the housing finance market last Congress, Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., offered little optimism Tuesday that structural reform is on its way anytime soon.

Sunshine Bancorp in Plant City, Fla., has hired another former executive from the former Susquehanna Bancshares in Lititz, Pa.

Marlin Business Services in Mount Laurel, N.J., has partnered with property and casualty insurer Hartford Financial Services Group to expand services for its core clientèle.

The pace of bank M&A deals slowed in the third quarter and was flat through the first nine months of this year.

Three collection agencies agreed Monday to pay a total of $493,670 in civil penalties to resolve allegations that they committed unfair practices.

A looming dividend spike tied to the Small Business Lending Fund convinced Hopewell Valley Community Bank in Pennington, N.J., to sell itself.

The New York State Department of Financial Services gave a third virtual currency company the green light to begin operations in the state.

U.S. bankruptcy filings totaled 629,570 in the first nine months of the year, an 11% decrease from the 705,728 total filings during the same period a year ago, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.

Santander Group, the Spanish banking giant, has invested several million dollars in Ripple, one of the most prominent startups in the hotly discussed field of distributed-ledger technology.

What happens when big banks move into a market? Is it a good idea to partner with online lenders? How much of a problem are ag loans? Those questions were among the many addressed by researchers at the recent community banking conference in St. Louis hosted by the Federal Reserve and Conference of State Bank Supervisors.

Hancock Holding in Gulfport, Miss., has agreed to buy a portfolio of health care loans from United Community Banks in Blairsville, Ga.

A fintech startup that wants to change the way lenders and consumers square bad debts has raised $10 million in financing from a group of prominent investors.