Sara Lepro

If the financial industry were made up of nursery rhymes, Wells Fargo & Co. would be Little Jack Horner and Bank of America Corp. would be regarded as Pinocchio.

With the macroeconomic outlook still glum, housing prices still depressed and the FHA's grip on the market for low-down payment loans still intact, the mortgage insurers are stuck in the same rut. New business volume remains down sharply from pre-crisis levels, the insurers continue to pay out hefty claims on soured mortgage loans, and the forecast for when the industry returns to profitability is again murky at best.

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act case whose outcome could shield banks and other lenders from litigation under a wide range of federal and state laws.

For Capital One Financial Corp.'s planned acquisition of ING Direct to pay off, the lender will have to follow quickly with another deal, and the economy must not falter.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nonbank that banks love to hate -- and fear -- is at it again. The retailer next week will begin rolling out automated versions of its MoneyCenter offices, which provide a range of financial services to shoppers.

In the wake of the economic tsunami, banks are reassessing their business models to see what fits and what doesn't in this new era.

With subprime making a comeback in the auto lending sector, many experts are wondering if it is only a matter of time before the financial industry reverts to the fervid lending of yore.

With the crisis squarely in the rearview mirror, but near-term growth prospects dim, banks are looking for how best to position themselves for the future.

Letting the numbers speak for themselves, Bank of America's sent a message to anyone still disgruntled over its $29.1B purchase of Merrill Lynch. The message? "I told you so."

SunTrust Banks named William H. Rogers Jr. as president and CEO, answering a long-standing question over who would succeed James M. Wells 3rd as he neared retirement.

Two straight quarters in the black is not good enough for Grayson Hall, the chief executive of Regions Financial Corp., to proclaim "mission accomplished."

Questions about M&A are likely to dominate first-quarter conference calls among regional banks in the coming weeks. But beyond the standard "we're open to opportunities" line from ...

More and more bank managers are slowly coming around to the fact that thousands of conversations are occurring online every day about their brands, and not surprisingly, many of them aren't very nice.

On a nationwide basis, unemployment and jobless-claims data have slowly improved. But the metrics vary widely from market to market and, complicating matters, many bank operations, even those of regionals, straddle strong and weak markets.

Many big banks have been stepping up their philanthropic efforts, zeroing in on efforts to combat the devastating effects of the recession — but not necessarily with dollars.

At once soft-spoken and matter-of-fact, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan spoke about his first year at the helm.

Bank stocks are up across the board, with giddy investors anticipating a flurry of mergers after a few high-profile deals in December and January. But the higher share prices have actually slowed what could have otherwise been a steady pipeline of deals.

Brian Moynihan sought to usher in a "new era" for B of A Tuesday, asserting that the bank would move away from a culture of growth by acquisition to one focused on organic growth.

A closer examination of B of A's $20 billion goodwill charge on its card portfolio shows it was less a foreshadowing of further credit problems, and more a warning of the risks ...

For all the budget woes of state and local governments, banks see them as good clients. Most market experts say there are plenty of investment-grade municipalities to court.