Lucrative sale of a subprime lending unit. Big credit card deal. Clear business plan. It's looking like a good year for Citi — provided it passes the CCAR stress test this week and fills a key executive post.

Industry groups are urging the Pentagon to soften its proposed expansion of a rate cap on loans sold to service members, but banks face opposition from dozens of advocacy groups that favor tougher restrictions.

Costco has picked Visa as its new payment card network and Citigroup as the new issuer of its cobranded credit cards.

A court-imposed deadline for American Express to negotiate a fix to its merchant rules with the Department of Justice is about three weeks away. Odds of a deal are said to be low, heightening uncertainty — and fueling debate — about how the showdown will affect the future of the credit card business.

Prosper Marketplace, an online lender for consumer loans, has found a new source of referrals: community banks.

It's easy for banks to spin their wheels on local reinvestment, financial education and other efforts to help underserved communities. To make outreach programs successful, bank executives need to carefully vet nonprofit and other partners, listen to their employees on the front lines and reflect on their own reasons for getting into banking.

There are some fairly basic, decisive steps banks could take to educate people outside the financial mainstream, and it would make banking more profitable, says John Bryant, the chairman and CEO of the nonprofit Operation Hope.

Gemalto, which manufactures SIM cards and EMV chips, is investigating a report that U.S. and U.K. spy agencies hacked into the company's network and stole mobile phone encryption keys, a technology also used to secure card data.

If you thought American Express' loss Thursday of a big antitrust case would help its rivals, think again. Visa, MasterCard, and even card-issuing banks could be hurt by the race to lower merchant fees that the ruling will set off.

American Express rules barring businesses from asking customers to use lower-cost credit cards violate U.S. antitrust law, a federal judge found.

Pay.gov, the federal government's web portal for collecting payments to federal agencies, is now offering PayPal and Dwolla as payment options.

Vladimir Drinkman, a Muscovite charged in the biggest data-breach prosecution in U.S. history, pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he conspired to steal 160 million credit card numbers.

Decisions about when and how to implement EMV technology in credit and debit cards are difficult. Many banks have decided to slowly phase it in, despite the fact the delay will open them up to greater potential liability.

Branch closings draw big headlines, but several large banks are entering new markets — or bulking up in underrepresented cities — by adding branches and hiring lenders. Bank of America, for instance, is planning a retail push in Denver and Minneapolis.

American Express, the biggest U.S. credit-card issuer by customer purchases, said its co-brand and merchant agreements with Costco Wholesale in U.S. stores will end next year.

The bank's most recent ATM update offers something novel: customers can redeem their credit card rewards for cash or deposit them in other accounts at its 12,500 ATMs.

A federal judge has upheld a Texas law that bars the state's retailers from charging an additional fee to customers who pay with a credit card.

Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $4 million to settle charges that it made secured credit card loans in violation of New York law.

A subprime credit card company in Delaware agreed to pay nearly $3 million in refunds and penalties for allegedly charging fees that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says violated federal law.

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is seeking to permanently ban a credit provider in Texas from offering any services because of allegations that it ran a "sham credit card" business.