Rob Nichols, a former Treasury official and current head of the Financial Services Forum, will succeed former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating as the CEO of ABA. Keating announced he would be retiring late last year, after serving at the helm of ABA since 2011. (The Hill)

U.S. banks are lending to businesses at such a rapid clip that those loans are on pace to overtake residential mortgages for the first time since the 1980s. (Wall Street Journal)

After losing ground in the first quarter, U.S. bank stocks are making a comeback. The KBW Bank Index of large commercial-bank stocks is up 5.5% since March 31, compared with a 2.8% rise for the S&P 500. (Wall Street Journal)

Delivering high performance remains a challenge in spite of consecutive years of improvement to the U.S. economy. Nevertheless, some have done it. (American Banker)

The Federal Reserve has released recommendations for the U.S. payments system, including suggestions for speeding up the network, improving security, and working with financial institutions. (Forbes)

A handful of banks are upgrading their apps with Siri-like "virtual assistants" that understand spoken questions, at a time when most institutions don't even let digital customers do typed keyword searches of their transaction data. (American Banker)

Americans are becoming increasingly comfortable using their cell phones for basic banking and payments, though security concerns still inhibit greater traction in mobile banking, according to a Federal Reserve survey of consumers. (Wall Street Journal)

Thieves are stealing money from people's credit cards, bank, and PayPal accounts—by first tapping into their Starbucks mobile app. (CNN)

The Dodd-Frank Act’s asset threshold for systemically important financial institutions is set too low and should be replaced by a more tailored approach, ABA President and CEO Frank Keating said in a letter to the editor published Sunday in The Washington Post. (The Washington Post)

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen says the central bank remains on track to raise interest rates this year but will do so gradually, adding that she expects the economy to rebound after a surprisingly weak first quarter. (USA Today)

Reducing the regulatory burden on small and midsize banks is a hot topic in Washington these days. Proponents of reform point to a recent report from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, which found that "larger banks are better suited to handle heightened regulatory burdens than are smaller banks, causing the average cost of community banks to be higher." (American Banker)

Enforcement actions against non-compliant community financial institutions rose sharply in the first quarter of 2015, mainly due to increased regulatory oversight as more Dodd-Frank Act rules take effect, and because of an increased emphasis on anti-money laundering violations. (Wall Street Journal)

Many credit unions are functionally no different from banks and the time has come for them to pay taxes, Florida Bankers Association President and CEO Alex Sanchez said in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. (Wall Street Journal)

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