Bank channel

PNC's Atlanta branch deal underscores how wary acquisition-hungry banks are as they bulk up in a slow and risky market.

The finalization of new debit card regulations will likely provide a tailwind to bank technology spending later this year, according to the top executive of vendor Fiserv Inc. The company expects its clients will funnel more money toward software purchases as a result of rules, known collectively as the Durbin amendment, which the Federal Reserve Board shored up last month.

When elephants dance, the mice get trampled. That is how one lobbyist described the reasons banks have remained largely silent on the debt ceiling negotiations, despite the enormous impact that a default would have on the economy.

Warburg Pincus, one of the oldest and best-known private-equity players, has arrived at a strategy that experts say might offer a blueprint for the next phase of private-equity investing in banks.

In a presidential race dominated by fights over the debt limit and job creation, it is unusual for a candidate to devote much attention to the impact of Dodd-Frank on small banks. But Newt Gingrich has rarely taken the conventional route.

Five banks — M&T Bank Corp., PNC Financial Services Group Inc., Hancock Holding Co., People's United Financial Inc. and First Niagara Financial Group Inc. — countered early criticism of the prices and rationales of their recent acquisitions with hard data.

With loan demand still weak in many areas of the country, more and more bankers are starting to believe that their banks will need to merge with other institutions to achieve meaningful growth.

In the battle over Dodd-Frank implementation, large U.S. banks may do well to remember the story of the boy who cried wolf.

Given the low interest rates banks are paying on deposits these days, you might not think it’s much of a big deal that Thursday marks the end of an 80-year-old ban on banks paying interest on business accounts. But if you thought that, you are clearly not a financial advisor working at a bank.

After all the blood, sweat and tears that has gone into the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, a new survey revealed that almost half of all bankers do not think it will help prevent risks to the financial system.

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.

WASHINGTON — Under a federal rule approved Monday, regulators will use a "two-stage process" to decide whether certain companies that facilitate clearing transactions are systemically important.

WASHINGTON — With the administration choosing someone to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who may draw more GOP opposition than Elizabeth Warren, some insiders speculated the White House may be open to compromise over the bureau's structure to win confirmation for Richard Cordray.

Richard Cordray, the enforcement chief at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will be named to lead the new regulator, the Obama administration said Sunday.

Morgan Stanley Smith Barney is laying off financial advisors, but the big bank denies that it has any major layoff planned, as was reported earlier this week by Fox Business News.

Revenue growth without loan growth is possible — if you are JPMorgan Chase & Co. For other banks, the question remains: Can they figure out how to drive the topline higher without collecting more interest from borrowers?

When Matt Weidler made the long walk from his desk to the automated teller machine and realized he had forgotten his ATM card yet again, he decided the best thing to do was to reinvent the ATM.

Capital One surprised observers by coming to market with a $2 billion common stock offering intended to help pay for the $9 billion cash-and-stock acquisition of ING Group NV's U.S. online banking unit.

Some may wonder how a watchdog with no head can do much watching, but that’s the current state of affairs as the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, one of the administrations key financial reform programs coming out of the 2008 financial crisis, officially opens for business on July 21.

Without a permanent director in place, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau gave fair warning Tuesday it plans to start monitoring the industry's largest banks for consumer abuses in just over a week.