Bank channel

Nitin Mhatre, executive vice president of Consumer Finance, will lead Webster’s Personal Bank, which includes Webster Investment Services.

The company, which lost millions of dollars after straying from core banking, has returned to its roots as a traditional banking around Philadelphia.

M&T Bank is expected to complete its purchase of Hudson City Bancorp despite unexpected regulatory issues. But an analyst had fun speculating about who might step in as the buyer if that deal collapsed.

A heavyweight panel including former bank regulator Sheila Bair cautioned Wednesday that the Federal Reserve must take a clear and steady direction out of its "experimental" monetary policies so as not to further harm the economy.

In 2012, nearly 27% of commercial banks offered investment services, marking the first increase in over a decade.

Average Americans hold about $300,000 in life insurance coverage, even though they will earn approximately $1.5 million before they retire.

Community Bankers Trust in Glen Allen, Va., has agreed to sell its Georgia operations to Community & Southern Holdings in Atlanta.

Small business owners are feeling more confident even as the economy struggles to return to a more robust level of growth.

ESSA Bancorp in Stroudsburg, Pa., has agreed to a buy most of First National Community Bancorp's retail operations in Monroe County.

Umpqua names a former Citi Private Bank executive to lead growth in the San Francisco region.

Community banks need help. Bigger banks can provide them a lifeline. But it comes with a cost: the loss of bankers who understand the local community.

The combination of Mercantile and Firstbank is expected to break the bank M&A logjam in Michigan. The combined company will be on the lookout for more deals, executives say.

Doral Financial in Puerto Rico is aiming its philanthropic work at women entrepreneurs to improve the fortunes of its community and its own.

A federal judge raised the possibility that banks will have to repay billions of dollars to merchants, but legal experts say the court lacks the authority to enact such an order.

The Private Client Reserve lured professionals from J.P. Morgan Private Bank and Citi for positions in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Scottsdale, Ariz.

Benjamin Lawsky, who runs the New York Department of Financial Services, has become a top industry cop, taking on money launderers, payday lenders and even Bitcoin. In an interview, he discusses the need to break new ground while playing nice with federal regulators.

In 2012, the unit generated $25 million in revenue, beating the 133 banks in the region that reported brokerage fee income last year.

Sellers will say rising rates makes them more valuable. Buyers will say the same trend makes sellers less valuable. Add this impasse to the list of complications for bank M&A.

Cullen/Frost Bankers in San Antonio has agreed to buy WNB Bancshares in Odessa, Texas for $220 million in stock and cash.

The rules the U.S. adopted last month make major changes — purifying what counts as capital, hiking the total amount required, slapping on a series of buffers to further insulate the largest banks and creating a global leverage ratio as a floor.