Economy

The Federal Reserve deserves praise for a proposal that would strengthen financial stability by eliminating the rights of counterparties to tear up derivatives contracts in a failure.

Square's practice of using its merchant transaction data for risk analysis may seem innovative, but other other agile specialists—including Intuit—are finding ways to use new data streams to limit risk and deliver funds to borrowers.

Loan growth at several Boston banks, including many former mutuals, is higher than the national average. Still, bankers are closely watching for any indication that a bubble is forming.

Banking is often seen as a quintessentially modern institution. But financial practices are deeply rooted in the medieval period.

Mobile wallets may not have eliminated cash and cards, but they are becoming almost unavoidable in many retail settings. However, there are still a few areas where mobile technology is slow to arrive.

Though many have tried and failed to get bitcoin into the mainstream, iPayYou CEO Gene Kavner is ready to take a page out of the playbook of Amazon.com, his former employer, to bring attention to his new bitcoin wallet.

Most of the largest banks are participating in industrywide blockchain standard-setting activities, trying to determine which use cases would improve upon existing technology. That's backward, says Chain, a startup whose product is already being used by banks.

Going forward, Fannie Mae will be relying more on loan guarantee fee income from its single-family and multifamily businesses.

Students with excess cash but no bank account have fallen victim to predatory financial vendors, but the government can take steps to bypass the middleman.

Prosper Marketplace's decision to eliminate 22% of its workforce is more evidence that the bloom is off the rose for a sector that had been enjoying astronomical growth.

Shares in Bank of the Ozarks slid Wednesday after an investor known for shorting stocks warned about risk in the company's construction portfolio. The stock recovered some by the end of trading, and several analysts said the concerns are unfounded.

The hits that alternative lenders like OnDeck Capital are taking shouldn't be a surprise for an industry built on unsustainable business models.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency announced Wednesday it had raised a cap on the amount of multifamily loans Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac can buy from lenders, boosting it to $35 billion effective immediately.

With agencies created by the Dodd-Frank Act embroiled in court battles and continued questions dealing with "too big to fail," can anyone honestly say the reform law is working?

Small-business optimism has slipped slightly on concerns about growth prospects and the presidential election campaign, according to a Wells Fargo and Gallup survey conducted in early April.

Just six months out from the general election, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s positions on banking issues remain a complete mystery aside from a general pledge to roll back the Dodd-Frank Act.

At least one banker has gone public with expectations that the OCC will force his institution to hold more capital. More could soon follow.

Some buyers are hanging in there, but as OnDeck Capital's disappointing first-quarter results show, investors who acquire and securitize marketplace loans are heading for hills. Among the reasons: fear of defaults, unfavorable pricing and shrinking loan yields.

Industry groups are urging the Federal Housing Finance Agency to end the sweep of profits of the GSEs so that Fannie and Freddie can rebuild capital.

Entrepreneurs and other financial-technology experts give some common-sense advice including: watch your pennies, live in the right places and choose your associates carefully.