Heartland Financial USA's unusual acquisition of Freedom Bank in Sterling, Ill., seems to be more about collecting on a debt than strategic M&A. Such moves are uncommon but have happened in the last few years — and they can work.

Financial planning firm Waddell & Reed is partnering with BOK Financial (BOKF) to provide expanded trust services to its clients.

The Senate Banking Committee is making progress toward drafting legislation to overhaul the mortgage finance market, but one of the biggest unresolved issues is how much skin in the game private market participants must have in return for a government guarantee.

In a letter to servicers, a top CFPB official requests that student loan servicers show the options they've made available to borrowers who want to make extra payments on their loans.

The community development group Boston Community Capital is urging lawmakers to extend the Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act before it expires at the end of the December.

Atlantic Coast Financial Corp. (ACFC) in Jacksonville has priced its public offering at a slight discount to its trading price.

Commercial loan officers must use judgment in discussions and email exchanges with property moguls, whose lawyers will construe statements and written correspondence in a way most favorable to the borrower.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) should turn over a draft complaint used as the lender negotiated a $13 billion deal to settle probes of its mortgage-bond sales and identify an employee who cooperated with the U.S. investigation, according to lawyers for a Pennsylvania bank.

The small-dollar lender First Cash Financial Services (FCFS) has agreed to buy a 12-store pawnshop chain in the Charleston, S.C., area.

State Bank Financial CEO Joe Evans has hired an ex-colleague, fund manager David Brown, to help lead the next stage of the Atlanta bank's M&A strategy.

The short-term consumer loan product will either have to be overhauled or ditched in the wake of new regulatory guidance.

The chief financial officer of Eagle Bancorp Montana (EBMT) in Helena, Mont., is stepping down to pursue another opportunity.

When Isis launched its mobile wallet nationwide in November, it also launched new technology for customers who want to use their phones instead of cards or cash to pay at the checkout counter. Reporters from American Banker and PaymentsSource tested the new technology and share their findings.

The heads of U.S. Bancorp (USB) and Bank of America (BAC) have been re-elected to the board of The Clearing House, a payments company and trade group owned by the largest U.S. banks.

Mercantile Bank (MBWM) in Grand Rapids, Mich., expects regulatory hang-ups to delay its acquisition of Firstbank (FBMI) in Alma, Mich.

The cap on the size of mortgages that government-sponsored enterprises can guarantee will remain unchanged at the start of 2014.

A plan to sell a Dallas bank to an investor group through a bankruptcy auction could lead to big losses for groups that made investments at the height of the economic crisis.

Both the credit card delinquency rate (the ratio of borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on their general purpose credit cards) and the average credit card debt per borrower dropped on a yearly basis in the third quarter ended September 30, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion.

WASHINGTON — Higher interest rates and elevated litigation expenses at one large bank last quarter led to the industry's first year-over-year earnings decline in more than four years.

Capital One Financial (COF) has a new chief of Canadian operations, Shane Holdaway.