Bank of America will pay $2.4 billion to shareholders as part of a settlement announced this morning. It's compensation for maybe not sharing the whole story when B of A bought the failing brokerage Merrill Lynch in 2008.

After a recent scandal surrounding manipulation of a key interest rate, reforms are being proposed.

Reform is on the way after fraudulent manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate, or LIBOR, the rate used by many banks in lending to each other.

A group representing British banks is giving up its responsibility for setting a key global interest rate. The British Bankers Association will no longer control LIBOR — the London Interbank Offered Rate. That's the benchmark for hundreds of trillions of dollars in mortgages, student loans and other transactions around the world.

Banks are spreading the pain of fees to a wider swath of clients, according to a Bankrate study. Free checking is a dwindling option.

Bank of America is accelerating plans to cut costs by laying off workers. According to the Wall Street Journal, the bank has set a target of cutting 16,000 jobs by the end of this year — about 6 percent of the bank's workforce.

As part of our coverage of "The Real Economy" — what matters most to voters this election year — we've invited a guy named Mike Sleaford into the studio to give us his thoughts on the election and the economy.

With costs to open rural bank branches prohibitive, tech companies look to turn payphones into virtual banks.

According to the Financial Times newspaper, four big European banks have joined Barclays in the not-so-prestigious club of financial institutions being investigated for rigging a benchmark lending rate called LIBOR.

In the face of a tough banking market and disappointing earnings, Goldman Sachs announced this week that it will build a private bank — joining the ranks of UBS and U.S. Trust and others — that will manage and lend money to very wealthy individuals and companies.