Community bank earnings surged 28% to $4.8 billion during the fourth quarter, compared to a 7.3% decline for the industry as a whole, according to a report released Tuesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

San Francisco-based Sindeo is trying to bring the mortgage brokerage business into the future, creating a new online service that focuses on helping consumers navigate the often confusing mortgage process from start to finish.

IBM will assist Citi's Mobile Challenge competition, the two announced Tuesday.

The heightened regulatory environment for servicers has also prompted a wave of process improvements.

Marketplace lending platforms like Lending Club still need banks to make the loans. Cross River Bank CEO Gilles Gade, who has deals with 14 platforms and has talked with dozens of others, explains the mechanics of these agreements in a Q&A.

Docking Bancshares in Arkansas City, Kan., has agreed to buy RelianzBank in Wichita, Kan.

American Banker’s Index of Banking Activity hit a three-year low in January as falling oil prices and harsh winter weather tamped down borrowing.

A complaint filed in district court by the Federal Trade Commission aims to stop an operation that has targeted consumers with outstanding payday loans, claiming they could help resolve those debts but then providing little or none of the financial relief promised.

Huntington had admired the finance firm for decades, but it was the Ohio company's Midwestern ties that helped it snag the unit from other suitors.

A more efficient, customer-friendly process for small-dollar commercial loan requests is a matter of competitive necessity for most community banks.

A North Carolina newspaper published an editorial this week stating that state law, the Affordable Care Act and a series of articles published in 2012 has led nonprofit hospitals in North Carolina to become less aggressive in pursuing former patients who can’t pay their bills.

Busting up JPMorgan Chase would result in a collection of financial services companies with higher back-office costs, more divided capital and less power to be a world leader, the company's CFO said Tuesday.

BofI Holding in San Diego is planning a new $50 million offering after raising the same amount earlier this year.

The finance and technology industries should take some of the energy they've poured into mobile payments and put it toward making small-dollar loans more affordable.

Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, has agreed to buy Macquarie Equipment Finance in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Banks are transforming branches, rolling out new products and experimenting with alternative data, in an effort to bring more people into the financial mainstream. Such initiatives might have been a footnote in the past, but they have grown into a serious business strategy lately.

A sudden funding crisis forced John Bryant to shake up Operation Hope and develop a new model that relies heavily on banks to promote financial literacy. If it succeeds, Bryant says, it will drive more customers to banks and credit unions — and maybe even put payday lenders out of business.

The unfortunate reality is that those who most need credit counseling help are also the hardest to reach. In a Q&A, the agency's financial literacy honcho, Gail Hillebrand, talks about efforts to empower the vast swath of American who aren't terribly savvy.

Financial illiteracy is costing cities billions in revenue. Would more money-management programs in schools — funded by the sale of government bonds — change that?

The upstarts are shaking up the world of small-business financing, but with fraud concerns mounting, some say it's only a matter of time before they come under the scrutiny of state and federal regulators.