U.S. banks are ending the year with their best profits since 2006 and fewer failures than at any time since the financial crisis struck in 2008. They're helping support an economy slowed by high unemployment, flat pay, sluggish manufacturing and anxious consumers.

Mary Schapiro will step down as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission next month after a tumultuous tenure in which she helped lead the U.S. government's regulatory response to the 2008 financial crisis.

CEOs from more than 80 major U.S. companies are pressing Congress to reduce the federal deficit by raising taxes and cutting spending. The deficit and how to tame it has become a key theme in the presidential campaign.

A government survey shows about 821,000 U.S. households lost access to basic banking services between January 2009 and June 2011.

The new Volcker rule, which forces banks to better monitor their risks, may help avoid issues such as JPMorgan's catastropic $2 billion-plus loss.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is facing federal civil charges of taking part in an influence-peddling scheme involving the city's public-employee pension funds.

Federal regulators say the former CEO of a massive California employee pension fund conspired with a friend of his to trick a prominent investment firm into paying $20 million in fees to the friend's firms.

Regulators said Goldman analysts had weekly meetings to share confidential research; some Massachusetts pension funds were excluded from access to the research.