U.S. homeowners continue to take advantage of rising house prices to dig themselves out of the hole created by the Great Recession.

Banks say the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau plan to ban arbitration clauses for individual claims will aid trial lawyers, while consumer advocates say the move is overdue and may not go far enough.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's impending proposal, to be reviewed by a small business advisory panel, would block companies from using arbitration clauses to avoid class actions but allow them for individuals.

Bank of Nova Scotia's online platform will introduce its first credit card Tuesday, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

A California company called NEFT wants to provide the online meeting place where debt-laden borrowers get together with lenders and credit bureaus to negotiate repayment plans. Backed by some prominent investors, NEFT says it offers carrots to get all the parties to participate.

In updating cards with EMV technology, Visa and MasterCard have neglected an important element of what makes the security standard so successful elsewhere. The need for PIN verification is clear.

Many card issuers are well on their way to the migration to chip cards or have a plan to do so. But many merchants are still completely unaware of the shift in fraud liability taking effect Thursday.

The $17 billion-asset holding company for First National Bank of Pennsylvania plans to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, according to a Wednesday news release.

Some critics argue that it's a bad idea to introduce chip cards without PIN requirements. But this debate is a distraction from the payments industry's robust and multifaceted efforts to fight cybercrime.

The deadline for EMV migration in this country is this Thursday. Here's what will and won't happen on that day, and what challenges lie ahead for banks and their customers.