Bank channel

Small business owners are seeing some signs of improvement in the overall U.S. economy but that optimism is tempered by their concerns about a general sense of uncertainty as the economy slowly works its way out of the recession.

The hand-wringing over bank capital levels is pulling the spotlight off a bigger issue: effective oversight of the largest firms. In the wake of the crisis, regulators have forced banks to hold both a higher level and a higher quality of capital. They've created a tangle of complicated rules.

Responding to frustrated lawmakers who have yet to see the Obama administration give out any funds from its $30 billion small business lending program, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday the fault lay with the banking regulators.

Bankers are cautiously upbeat about their industry. Given executives' overwhelming bias toward positive thinking, however, that is cause for concern.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. convened some of the best banking-policy minds on the planet Tuesday to look at how best the agency can use its new powers to unwind a large, systemically important bank.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch will double the ranks of what it calls its Financial Solutions Advisors by year's end.

While international regulators continue to spar over the right size of a proposed capital surcharge for the largest banks, the U.S. banking agencies are disagreeing among themselves on the issue.

Fiserv's upgrades to key processing software could remove another roadblock in the way of the many banks that want to speed up their ACH payments.

Now that its private-equity injection is almost a done deal, First BanCorp's natural next move would be to consolidate power in Puerto Rico. Unless it sells itself instead.

Royal Bank of Canada plans to grow its U.S wealth and capital markets businesses after agreeing to sell its U.S. retail banking operations to PNC Financial Services Group.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. on Monday said it struck a deal to buy Royal Bank of Canada's U.S. retail banking operations for $3.45 billion.

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.

HSBC Holdings PLC has stepped up its retreat from the U.S. by officially putting its upstate New York retail franchise on the block in addition to its credit card portfolio.

After months of rumors, Wells Fargo & Co. — the nation's largest originator of reverse mortgages — made it official confirming that it is leaving the sector, but will remain as a servicer.

A new annual study from J.D. Power and Associates shows that RBC Wealth Management ranks first compared to other firms in investor satisfaction.

USAA Federal Savings Bank plans to unveil an overhauled website this month that can provide the kinds of conversations online that typically only happen face-to-face in branches.

Chicago has long been viewed as a market ripe for consolidation, but the Second City might be starting to rot on the vine.

After the flurry of role changes at JPMorgan Chase & Co. this week, it is easy to dwell on the relative power of executives and their career trajectories.

A FINRA arbitration panel has ordered Bank of America Merrill Lynch to pay Angel E. Aquino $1.55 million in compensatory damages and expunge language in his Form U5.

Huntington Bancshares this week rolled out mobile banking applications for customers' iPhones and Android-powered smartphones that will allow them to check balances, pay bills and transfer funds on the fly.