Bank channel

Many bankers are rethinking their fee structures and the range of services they provide. The trick is to avoid overly punitive fees while offering services that offer value to customers.

Regional and community banks are carving out niches as asset managers by offering perks and personal services to affluent customers whom bigger rivals often overlook.

The firm settled legal disputes with federal regulators tied to mortgage-backed securities for about $335 million.

Advisors in the field, or those who cover multiple bank branches, will be able to electronically transport clients’ documents in an easier format.

Wells Fargo is among firms facing federal scrutiny of mortgage-bond sales under a 1989 law the government is using to extend probes of banks’ roles in the credit crisis, two people with knowledge of the matter said.

Regions Financial, Alabama’s biggest bank, received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development tied to the origination of mortgages backed by the Federal Housing Administration.

The U.S. is in the midst of an economic revolution akin to the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s and early 1800s, says Raymond James strategist.

Paul Cahill from Virtus Investment Partners notes that 10% returns were a reality for previous generations—but not anymore

Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are among Wall Street firms still catering to SAC Capital Advisors after the hedge fund agreed to plead guilty to insider trading charges.

The sixth-largest U.S. bank by assets said it may be sued by American International Group over mortgage-backed securities that the insurer purchased before the financial crisis.

The head of the state bank supervisors' group said he sees a quiet push to "reform our regulatory structure to better reflect the business models of our largest banks."

Regions Insurance hired the owner and two associates of The Hanback Group, an independent insurance brokerage and human resources consulting firm, to lead the employee benefits practice in Nashville.

Call it the second wave of the mortgage-refinancing collapse. Prepayment penalty income is about to crash. Hard. Especially in New York.

Advisor Ryan Beal gave away most of his clients-and then built back up-to focus exclusively on cops and firefighters. Their personalities and senses of humor are similar to his own, plus they have good retirement packages. And he gets to ride on a fire truck to boot.

"We need to grow substantially," said Brent Smith, the new program manager at the Lititz, Pa., bank, who issued a mandate to double revenue over the next three to five years.

Markets are pretty efficient in the long-term but can be wildly inefficient in the short-term. And the short-term is where advisors can provide value to clients.

As advisors look to protect clients' assets, and lock in steady income streams as well, they're changing the ingredients they use. They're adding new products to the mix with an eye-always-toward allaying the anxieties of their conservative clients.

Deutsche Bank's Chip Packard and Haig Ariyan discuss lessons the industry learned in the past five years.

The firm added three advisors in the Palm Beach market, where business is growing.

The former central region president will now oversee the Private Client Reserve and its 1,300 financial professionals nationwide