Ally Financial has completed the sale of its Brazil operations to General Motors Financial Co., a subsidiary of the automaker GM, it said. Ally (which was once itself a GM subsidiary) received $611 million in the sale.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke bit on James Bullard's joke about the superiority of St. Louis' baseball team over Washington's, but he avoided the bait to discuss the federal shutdown.

Doral Financial (DRL) in San Juan, P.R., has appointed veteran banker David Hooston as chief financial officer and executive vice president.

The Debit Interchange Fee Study Act called for a six-month regulatory study on the cost of the rules and their impact on consumers. There are good reasons to revisit that approach now.

Home Bancorp (HBCP) in Lafayette, La., has filled two top banking roles.

First Sound Bank in Seattle has been released from a regulatory action after improving its capital levels.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon stepped down as chairman of the lender's main bank subsidiary at the start of July, according to a person briefed on the move.

Bay Commercial Bank (BCML) in Walnut Creek, Calif., has appointed a state regulator as its new chief risk officer and senior vice president.

Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) in Cincinnati was ordered this week to pay First South Bank in Spartanburg, S.C., $2.8 million in damages for a real estate deal gone sour.

In a victory for small retailers, a federal court in New York has ruled that merchants in the state may add swipe-fee surcharges on purchases made by credit card instead of cash.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's $1.4 million fine against a large third-party processor for debt relief companies proved that firms can no longer hide in the intricate debt collection stream.

Birds, hot tubs, carousels and more. These are among the images that Beneficial Mutual in Philadelphia used in creative ads to promote financial education and attract customers.

Federal Reserve Board Gov. Jerome Powell said Thursday the agency is planning to launch a new supervision program for community banks next year.

WSFS Financial in Wilmington, Del., holds the picture contest to engage customers and employees while highlighting improvements to its mobile banking.

Dorothy Savarese knows as well as any community banker the frustrations from mounting regulation. Empirical studies can illuminate compliance burdens — and their broader consequences — for policymakers, the Massachusetts thrift executive says.

We should instead preserve the right of consumers to choose the products and features that best provide for their family’s daily financial needs, not force them into limited and costly alternatives.

Fox Chase Bancorp in Hatboro, Pa., has won permission to ditch its federal charter.

For the first time in the history of a survey conducted by the American Bankers Association, mobile banking outranked telephones and snail mail in popularity.

The chief operating officer of CCFNB Bancorp in Bloomsburg, Pa., plans to retire.

Big banks once again widened their lead in deposits, according to the FDIC's yearly survey. Community banks lost ground nationwide, but they held their own in small cities and rural areas. Plus, small banks slowed deposit-gathering because they're already too liquid.