The Federal Housing Finance Agency is receptive to the idea of Federal Home Loan Bank mergers, according to the agency's director.

Richard Fairbank acknowledged that increased competition among lenders is leading to looser loan terms, but said the industry is still normalizing after an extraordinary recession-era period.

A top executive at American Express acknowledged Monday that the firm's efforts to persuade consumers to pay with their mobile phones have so far been a failure.

Banks are looking to cross-sell products, and they're targeting commercial and industrial borrowers to do the buying. It is a result of higher capital and liquidity requirements, and the fact that commercial borrowers are the best targets.

BB&T is back the business of buying banks for the first time in several years, even though most of its peers think regulators are opposed to big-bank M&A. BB&T's investments in compliance improvements make its executives feel confident about getting new deals done, CEO Kelly King says.

Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., has hired Dawn Melesko to serve as director of social media for BankMobile, the mobile and tablet banking platform it plans to launch in late summer 2014.

Nonbank mortgage lenders boosted loan production by 50% in the second quarter, relying heavily on higher purchase volumes, Richey May & Co. said Monday.

Consumer borrowing in the U.S. rose more than forecast in July as non-revolving loans including those for cars climbed by the most in three years.

Braintree, a payment technology business owned by eBay and PayPal, has opened up Bitcoin acceptance to its merchant clients, including airbnb, GitHub, Uber and LivingSocial.

SB Financial in Defiance, Ohio, has redeemed $10.3 million in trust-preferred securities, in an effort to lower its interest-related expenses.

Community bankers are launching a last-ditch effort to push the Senate this year to pass more than a dozen bipartisan regulatory relief bills that have already cleared the House with support from both parties.

U.S. bankruptcy filings totaled 75,170 in August, down 16% from 88,962 in August 2013. It's the largest year-to-year drop so far in 2014, according to data from Epiq Systems Inc.

National Bank of Commerce in Birmingham, Ala. has purchased a majority stake in the parent company of a collections and accounts receivable management firm.

Bankers joined loan guarantors in pushing the Federal Housing Finance Agency to ease proposed capital rules for mortgage insurers, saying the plan will make borrowing less affordable for homebuyers unless it's revised.

The nonbank mortgage lender is moving closer to issuing its first private-label mortgage-backed security.

Ontario Systems has been honored with the 2014 When Work Works Award for its use of effective workplace strategies to increase business and employee success.

Pacific Mercantile Bancorp in Costa Mesa, Calif., promoted Robert Sjogren to be chief operating officer of the holding company and its bank subsidiary.

The Federal Reserve is making clear that the status quo, in which U.S. electronic payments take days to complete, is not going to hold, an industry analyst says.

Tight credit standards and student loan debt may be holding back the housing market, but equity research analyst Ivy Zelman thinks that homeownership will pick up along with the cyclical recovery. Banks are already "incrementally easing" their requirements for mortgage applicants with credit scores above 660, she says, and banks need to "fill the void" left by the refinancing slump.

Citigroup has promoted Peter Charrington to global head of Citi Private Bank.