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Fifth Third last bought a bank in 2008, but CEO Greg Carmichael says "strategic bank M&A absolutely makes sense," and the Cincinnati bank is poised to clear up a blot on its regulatory record that blocked dealmaking. ... Read full article

Farmer Mac has terminated President and CEO Timothy Buzby for violating company policies not related to its financial and business performance. ... Read full article

The ban on financing properties encumbered by heating and cooling assessments will go into effect in 20 days, according to the Federal Housing Administration. ... Read full article

The JPMorgan Chase CEO supports easing regulations on mortgage lending but says other major provisions of Dodd-Frank should remain intact. ... Read full article

A whistleblower charges that during the Obama administration, Treasury's Office of Financial Research manipulated information that it provided during a review by the Governmental Accountability Office. ... Read full article

The Federal Reserve Board on Thursday proposed to give banks more insight into portfolio performance under its stress testing models in an effort to help banks better understand the Fed’s methodology. ... Read full article

The central bank should take new steps to ensure that examiners do not become too cozy with the big banks they supervise, a government watchdog said. ... Read full article

HSBC Bank is joining the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Industrial Liaison Program as part of a broader effort to invest more in technology, data and analytics. ... Read full article

The new standards are aimed at reducing the variability between regulatory treatments of risk-weighted assets. ... Read full article

The U.S. is taking steps to stamp out the practice of servicemembers and veterans being pressured into taking mortgages they don't need, a move that officials say will lower consumer costs and could lead to financial penalties for lenders. ... Read full article

PNC's new consumer lending platform will be marketed on a national scale. ... Read full article

Digital currency surges past both $12,000 and $13,000 on Wednesday; the bank may make it back quickly, depending on the corporate income tax rate. ... Read full article

House Financial Services Committee Jeb Hensarling shifted tactics on housing finance reform Wednesday, acknowledging that a bill he’s pushed for years to virtually eliminate the government’s role in the mortgage market lacks the support to become law. ... Read full article

Citigroup expects to take a noncash charge to earnings of about $20 billion if the Senate's version of the tax reform bill is enacted, Chief Financial Officer John Gerspach said. ... Read full article

The agency has suffered a series of setbacks over the past two months, from a rollback of its arbitration rule to a legal battle over its leadership. Here's what happened — and where the agency might lose next. ... Read full article

After two century-old community institutions merged in 2010, they never suspected it would take seven years before their operating systems got along. ... Read full article

Women are not only less likely to be approved for loans than men, they are less inclined to apply for loans in the first place. Among the reasons: aversion to debt and fear of rejection, according to a new report. ... Read full article

SunTrust sold an insurance financing unit that it deemed noncore, but it is on the lookout to buy more complementary businesses such as a CRE lender it acquired last year. ... Read full article