Bridgewater Bancshares in Bloomington, Minn., has raised $15 million from the private-equity firm Castle Creek Capital.

Nicolet Bankshares in Green Bay, Wis., has agreed to buy Baylake Corp. in Sturgeon Bay, Wis.

Vikram Pandit knows a thing or two about fees — he ran a hedge fund and led Citigroup Inc. as the world's biggest credit card lender. Now he's switched sides and wants to help people avoid them.

Graduate business students — some of whom previously worked at traditional financial services companies — have been organizing fintech clubs at universities to explore the dramatic changes in banking and to find potential employers.

WASHINGTON – Federal bank regulators said Tuesday that they are taking steps to ease the regulatory burden on community banks by eliminating or revising certain call report line items.

Community banks could be vulnerable to increased funding costs, particularly rates tied to retail deposits. Technology, and improved modeling, could help them hold onto more deposits.

Income-based repayment, a federal government effort to relieve student-loan debt burdens, has roiled a normally tranquil securitization market, as investors can no longer be sure of when they'll be repaid.

What does a small bank do when a much larger bank encroaches on its home turf?

Brayden McCarthy of Fundera contends that unfair practices are commonplace in the online lending industry, and that self-regulation is needed to protect small-business borrowers.

Prestige Financial Services, a privately held subprime auto lender, is looking to spark growth by offering credit directly to consumers over the Internet.

California’s Court of Appeal has blocked a class-action lawsuit against against collection agency GC Services.

A partnership between collection agency ConServe in Fairport, N.Y. and Rochester Rehabilitation in Rochester, N.Y. is aiming to help employ people with disadvantages.

The marketplace lender CommonBond announced that it has raised $35 million, which it plans to use to expand its operations across the country.

Prestige Financial Services, which focuses on car buyers who are in the bankruptcy process, is trying to keep pace in a fast-growing market.

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Ally Financial has extended the cutoff time for accepting check deposits that are credited the next day.

Guaranteed Rate has added 75 former Discover Home Loans employees as well as the Irvine, Calif., call center facility where they worked.

Forget China — for U.S. banks, Canada carries more weight. Canada's energy-led recession looks harmless for now, but the tight connections between Canada and American banks make it potentially dangerous if it becomes prolonged.

The credit union regulator received nearly 3,100 comment letters tied to plans to loosen restrictions on business lending, with a vast majority opposing any changes.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink this week, including demands for more transparency on banks' small-business lending and why the average American should care about the GSE investors lawsuit.