Economy

Online alternative financing can be an efficient source of capital for small businesses, but it can also be predatory, especially to unaware and inexperienced borrowers.

At most merchants, mobile wallets have been a solution in search of a problem. But at the pharmacy, every customer already has a problem — possibly several problems — they want to address before they even think about how they want to pay.

A Federal Housing Finance Agency rule that will force some members of the Federal Home Loan Bank System out next year is likely to have a material effect on several of the cooperative institutions.

Mortgage lenders can expand their businesses by catering to borrowers who aren't proficient in English, but doing so requires strategic recruiting and hiring and compliance with federal and state regulations.

Those wanting to break up banks act as though policymakers had no regulatory response to the crisis, but here’s an illustration of how actual reforms would have prevented a large failure.

Small-business owners are struggling to understand the cost of loans sold by marketplace lenders. To remedy this, the industry must embrace a disclosure box that includes these five principles.

WASHINGTON — The Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 has not had a negative impact on community banks, contrary to assertions by Republicans and many bankers, according to a group of White House economists.

The emergence of lenders that have no real connection to a geographic area prompts questions over how the Community Reinvestment Act's "good neighbor" policy can continue.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP failed to spot for seven years a multibillion-dollar fraud that led to the demise of Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., a lawyer for the lender's bankruptcy trustee told a Miami jury on Tuesday.

American International Group Chief Executive Peter Hancock said he's more focused on boosting returns than worrying about the government's classification of his company as a systemically important financial institution.

The embattled firm is offering financial incentives in an effort to kick-start lending, but compliance-focused banks have been slow to respond.

The marketplace lender OnDeck Capital is sticking with its lend-and-hold strategy even though the practice contributed to a second consecutive quarterly loss.

The Inspector General of the Department of Housing and Urban Development has found a new ally in his fight to reform the down payment assistance programs run by HUD and state and local housing finance agencies.

Under pressure from regulators to beef up risk management in commercial real estate lending, banks are using new software tools to improve analysis.

The biggest change in banking in the last 60 years is the shift in balance sheets from business lending to real estate finance and therefore more risk tied to volatile real estate prices.

Independent mortgage banking and brokerage firms added a whopping 5,900 fulltime employees to their payrolls in June, according to a report issued Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The U.S. is steadily building the foundation of a nationwide faster payments system, but not all of the pieces are connected. Many of the elements developed independently, with influence from across the globe.

The solution to "too big to fail" is requiring all creditors, other than insured depositors, to face the risk of loss so that neither the FDIC nor taxpayers lose any money.

Settlements related to court fights over private-label mortgage-backed securities are significantly boosting the bottom lines at a few Federal Home Loan banks.

Nonbanking fees are also allowing Community Bank System in New York to be a patient acquirer even though it is creeping up on $10 billion in assets.