Banking

Prankster activists the "Yes Men" got the better of Bank of America recently, but the facts they highlighted are serious. Despite massive government bailouts, BofA executives are still putting their own interests above those of their customers.

It's unlikely that random people will just give you the money you need to float you through your ordinary fiscal troubles. But they might make you a loan. Peer-to-peer lending, where borrowers bypass big banks and get loans directly from other individuals, is getting bigger all the time.

Taking aim at the many Americans who don't have a credit card or checking account but are inclined to shop online, Walmart is now allowing customers to pay in cash for online orders.

On Tuesday morning, my wife and I discovered our Chase Bank account had been hacked. By that afternoon, I realized we were part of something much bigger. But even a data breach that affected up to 1.5 million accounts is only the tip of the bank fraud iceberg.

Faced with the prospect of becoming the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, Stockton, Calif., decided on a novel gambit: They just stopped paying some of their bills.

Recent stress tests on America's big banks reveal that the financial crisis is far from over. While the "too big to fails" are in better shape than they were in 2008, there's still "room for improvement at virtually every firm."

Mitt Romney's Swiss bank account is back in the news, and Americans are wondering why he has money in the famous tax haven. But if "Swiss bank account" makes you think of criminals, secret agents and tax dodgers, your ideas are more fiction than fact.