Capital One’s intentions to acquire the US subsidiary of ING Group means that the Federal Reserve will have to show that it wants to make sure that our financial system does not become even more highly concentrated in the hands of a just a handful of banks.

Critics of the deal are going to say that if Capital One gets another $82 billion in deposits held by American consumers, it will hurt small businesses when they try to get loans. It is an argument that (more…)

Community Choice Holdings, the parent company of payday lender Check$mart, says that it will seek to make an initial public offering of its stock.

The news gives a glimpse into the operations of the company. Check$mart says that prepaid “is one of our fastest growing businesses.” They have 95,000 prepaid accounts. Although the application form for the prepaid card does not (more…)

Rumors are circulating that NetSpend (NTSP) will soon be purchased by one of its competitors.

Shares of NetSpend fell below $5 last week. The Federal Reserve has placed an enforcement order upon NetSpend’s largest share holder.

Analysts think that Green Dot and Capital One are the entities most likely to want to bid for their shares. NetSpend (more…)

The details can be extracted from the firm’s two most recent annual reports.

There was a significant change to how Block ran its tax business in 2011. During the most recent tax season, Block did not offer any refund anticipation loans. Block, through a partnership with Household Finance, was the first tax company to offer the tax refund loan. Last year, HSBC pulled out of the market. Block reported $146 million in fee (more…)

ING customers and community advocates are voicing some resistance to news that Capitol One will buy ING’s US subsidiary.

In June, Capital One reached an agreement to buy ING Direct USA for $6.2 billion and approximately $2.6 billion in stock. The merger is schedule to finalize in the fourth quarter. (more…)