Kristin Broughton

Two consumer advocacy groups in California have accused CIT Group's OneWest Bank of failing to provide mortgages and other financial services in minority neighborhoods.

Steven Mnuchin is widely viewed as a top pick for Treasury secretary in the Trump administration. A Goldman Sachs alum, he is known as a successful change agent for his roles in the transformation of the failed IndyMac into OneWest and the revamping of CIT, but some community reinvestment advocates remain critical of him.

The No. 3 U.S. bank by assets has made a change at the top after a snowballing scandal involving the creation of fraudulent accounts.

The slow start to Fifth Third's 3%-down mortgage illustrates some of the logistical challenges with such programs, which are on the rise across the industry.

U.S. acquisitions have buoyed profits at Canada’s biggest banks, whose domestic economy is sluggish and possibly on the verge of a housing crisis. The banks are expected to pursue more M&A in the U.S. if that problem persists.

Quarterly profit at CIT Group plunged after the in Livingston, N.J., company recorded $167 million in charges tied to its discontinued reverse-mortgage servicing unit.

The $140 billion-asset company disclosed Thursday in a regulatory filing that the Federal Reserve Board downgraded its Community Reinvestment Act rating to "needs to improve."

Calling the crazy-idea department…a U.S. Bancorp-branded bus is more than halfway through a cross-country, social-media-tracked journey to promote community development and alter its profile. It's an example of the new style of reputation-oriented marketing being pursued by banks.

An executive from Regions Financial said recently that his bank plans to pad fee income by expanding into syndication of low-income housing credits. The comment shed light on an increasingly competitive business — and reminded the world again how eager banks are for even incremental boosts to revenue.

The world knows JPMorgan's quarterly profits fell and that it flunked the living wills test. But underneath all that were solid first-quarter results in its core lending businesses that bode well for other banks at the start of earnings season.