Economy

Despite pledges last year to move "aggressively" to implement new credit scoring models at the government-sponsored enterprises, the Federal Housing Finance Agency's effort appears to have stalled.

Money360, a marketplace lender that focuses on commercial real estate, has hired mortgage industry veteran Gary Bechtel as its president.

Bank executives and outside experts finger technology as the area most in need of improvement when it comes to vetting financial institutions' ability to withstand the next bit economic shock.

Brian Moynihan, Bank of America's chairman and CEO, told investors Thursday that revenue from fixed-income and equity markets should decline by 5% to 6% in the third quarter compared with a year ago. The Charlotte, N.C., bank will continue to have a higher efficiency ratio relative to its peers because of the high costs of paying financial advisers.

Wells Fargo is raising minimum credit score requirements on Federal Housing Administration loans, part of the ongoing jockeying by large banks to limit lawsuits by the Justice Department for defective FHA loans.

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators reintroduced a bill Wednesday that would prohibit lawmakers from using certain housing finance fees to offset unrelated government spending.

Fundera, which runs a website where small-business owners can shop for loans, has raised $11.5 million in new equity funding.

Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and David Vitter, R-La., the lead sponsors of a bill to place more explicit limits on the Federal Reserve's emergency lending powers, say the bill is getting quashed by a full-court press from banking interests.

The window for moving financial services regulatory relief through Congress is rapidly closing, but there appears to be little hope that the partisan tensions that have stalled the process will ease in time.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Vice Chairman Thomas Hoenig said favorable leverage-ratio treatment for certain derivatives would undermine postcrisis capital reforms.

Among other reasons for seeking their own charters, the U.K.'s so-called challenger banks say they need to avoid being beholden to older institutions that can slow down the creative process.

CircleBack Lending, a Boca Raton, Fla., marketplace lender, has completed a $17.4 million round of equity financing.

A small Internet-focused bank plans to offer Prosper Marketplace's personal loans directly to its own customers through the bank's website. Prosper could use it as a template for deals with other banks.

License numbers for loan officers, real estate agents and settlement agents will be required on one of the new TILA-Respa integrated disclosure forms, raising questions about whether they could trigger investigations of possible illegal marketing services agreements.

Criminal charges don't scare big banks anymore. Perhaps the Justice Department's fresh commitment to threatening top executives with prosecution will keep them in line.

Visa has created a prototype of a car designed to initiate payments, the first step in a five-year plan of changing the way motorists pay for gas and other needs while in transit.

Brayden McCarthy and Jared Hecht of Fundera argue that the Small Business Borrowers' Bill of Rights, a self-regulatory document written by online small-business lenders, should serve as a template for future government regulation of the sector.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is withdrawing her support for a Republican bill that had been on the fast track to bar the Treasury Department from selling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac preferred shares, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Associated Banc-Corp in Green Bay, Wis., has promoted a longtime executive to Milwaukee market president.

The North Carolina-based BB&T is far larger than any other bank regulated by the FDIC. It should be under the supervision of an agency with more experience overseeing large banks.