March Madness office pools are in full swing. While sports analysts provide ample entertainment, their predictions have time and again forced me to shell out to my victorious colleagues. For this reason, I shut out the chatter and focus on the stats.

Spring is here, making it a good time to review banks' wide-ranging marketing efforts at all levels of baseball, from the majors to college.

The economy has improved, and banks are doing a better job of making money, but activist investors are still putting pressure on certain community banks. Here is an overview of banks that are facing proxy battles in coming months.

The leader of the Senate Banking Committee said he'd rather leave Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in U.S. conservatorship than pass a bill that includes explicit government support for the housing market.

While a number of community banks are preparing for lock horns with dissident shareholders, a bank in Indiana managed to work with an activist to avoid a nasty brouhaha.

Southern Missouri Bancorp in Poplar Bluff has filed to sell $20 million in preferred stock it issued to the Treasury Department as part of the Small Business Lending Fund.

Amalgamated Bank of Chicago has sold its headquarters building for $35 million.

A mortgage relief operation has settled Federal Trade Commission charges that they illegally charged upfront fees for services they falsely promised would reduce consumers’ mortgage interest rates or monthly payments.

Former Federal Reserve Gov. Jeremy Stein has agreed to consult for hedge fund BlueMountain Capital Management, the fund announced Tuesday.

By poaching Ruth Porat from Morgan Stanley, it's clear Google wants to forge closer relationships with banks. That's because banks hold the key to helping Google expand its Google Wallet mobile-payments product.

American Savings Bank in Honolulu has agreed to a proposed $2 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit tied to its overdraft fees on debit card and ATM transactions.

There are a lot of consumer, investor and regulatory complaints about how the nonbank servicing firm does business, but Morgan Stanley researchers offer reasons why certain investors and borrowers could benefit from sticking with Ocwen.

Lendio, an online lending marketplace for small business, raised $20.5 million of equity capital in a recently completed funding round.

Investors expected rates to increase last year. When they didn't, it showed up everywhere: stock prices, earnings estimates and banks' decisions to sell or go public. In a wide-ranging interview, KBW CEO Thomas Michaud reflects on what turned out to be a good year for M&A, what is driving deals and his firm's role in bringing companies together.

If you thought the subprime mortgage-backed security was an artifact of the past, think again. Nomura Holdings and Angel Oak Capital have a deal that may help revive the part of the market that went bust during the crisis. Their success could encourage more banks to dip their toes back into riskier mortgages.

Federal regulators on Tuesday pushed back against the perception that they are cracking down harder on Bank Secrecy Act violations, saying they have not made recent changes to the rules or how they enforce them.

WASHINGTON — House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, announced a vote for Thursday of 11 bills aimed at lessening regulatory burden on banks by changing aspects of the Dodd-Frank Act and associated regulations.

Ally Financial, the auto lender rescued by the U.S. government during the 2008 financial crisis, promoted Diane Morais to chief executive officer of the banking unit as Jeffrey Brown reshapes management.

The ruling means that customers could be at risk for not reviewing bank statements carefully and then failing to notify their bank of an error in a timely manner.

The news that the three largest credit bureaus will reform their practices has been hailed as an important step in improving credit-report accuracy. But while the procedures offer greater protection and more transparency, will they truly bring about a significant decline in serious reporting errors?