Big banks grab headlines with large commitments to small businesses but, when compared total assets, many community banks are setting the pace.

Loan yields are still healthy relative to funding costs. It’s the pileup of low-rate bonds on bank balance sheets that has crimped profit margins.

A new survey indicates people are starting retirement with record amounts of debt, while counting on borrowing to cover expenses in retirement.

The banking giant is conducting research aimed at helping it develop products and services that would meet the needs of customers with annual incomes of less than $50,000.

TD Bank has agreed to pay $44 million to settle allegations that it aided a South Florida lawyer's $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

A recap of the informed opinions (and the discussions they generated) on BankThink and AmericanBanker.com this week.

Shareholders who hoped proxy firms ISS and Glass Lewis would help them decide on Bond Street's controversial $5-per-share offer for Atlantic Coast Financial in Florida are out of luck: ISS says "aye," while Glass Lewis says "nay."

A move to strengthen and centralize the collection of delinquent accounts owed to Louisiana state agencies received the support of state lawmakers Thursday and now heads to Gov. Bobby Jindal.

Raj Date, the former deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, plans to work with banks to create cheaper short-term loans for cash-strapped customers, despite mounting regulatory scrutiny of the products.

A crackdown on payday lending looks increasingly likely and risks sending low-income consumers in search unregulated financing options on the Internet and abroad. That threat is a key topic of discussion at American Banker’s Underbanked Financial Services Forum, which wraps up Friday in Miami. National Editor Maria Aspan reports from the event.

Texas State Bankshares in Harlingen has agreed to buy Border Capital Group in McAllen in a merger of South Texas lenders.

Jean Smith, a local kid who grew up to run branches in the New York borough for JPMorgan Chase, has spent her retirement years teaching nonprofit BronxWorks how to tap private-sector funding.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. exercised its powers to appoint itself the receiver to circumvent a judge's ruling that barred Nevada regulators from closing a tiny bank belonging to Capitol Bancorp.

A draft of the bill from Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., has begun circulating on Capitol Hill. The legislation would set up a new housing finance system and calls for the dissolution of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Banks are behind many of the faulty or nonexistent records that lead collections companies to erroneously demand debt repayments. That was a key message from regulators, consumer advocates and collections insiders at a Thursday panel.

Taylor Capital Group in Chicago has hired a new chief compliance officer for Cole Taylor Bank.

Waterstone Financial (WSBF) in Wauwatosa, Wis., is planning a second-step conversion.

The consumer agency has listened to agency concerns and issued reasonable, measured rules, but it still faces charges that it's unaccountable and out of control.

Visa CEO Charles Scharf spoke at length Thursday about repairing frayed ties with retailers, even as the decade-long war over interchange fees rages on.

Lowering overhead (relative to assets) would be a powerful motivator for a bank to get big, fast. But the savings just aren't there.