Virginia Commerce Bancorp, Inc., reported net income to common stockholders of nearly $7.5 million, for the second quarter of 2011, compared to net income to common stockholders of $4.3 million, for the same period in 2010.

"We are certainly pleased with our earnings performance this quarter. Net income to common stockholders experienced a year-over-year increase of 73.3%. Earnings were undoubtedly bolstered by a substantial decrease in loan loss provisioning. Nonetheless, the bottom line also benefited from non-interest income increasing more than 100% year-over-year and from ongoing cost containment efforts resulting in non-interest expense decreasing 1.8% from the same quarter last year." Peter A. Converse, Chief Executive Officer.

"The reserve release this quarter was deemed appropriate by management based on our quarterly analysis of loan loss reserve adequacy, our projection of near-term asset quality trends and the fact that recent charge-offs have been largely covered by specific reserves. That is not to imply that quarterly provisioning will remain at the second quarter level going forward. Rather, provisioning is more likely to range between the first and second quarter levels through the remainder of this year."

Bank of America reported the most horrible fallout in its history Tuesday, but chief executive Brian Moynihan sustained to insist his bank doesn’t need to raise more capital.

The Charlotte bank´s capital base was a boiling topic for analysts after the bank reported a second –quarter loss of $9.1 billion, including favored dividend payments. The loss was in line with estimates the bank gave last month when it disclosed plans to take more than $20 billion in mortgage –related charges.

The river red ink, compared to a $ 2.8 billion gain a year earlier, again showed the nation´s biggest bank is laboring to bury mortgage-related troubles inherited from its 2008 Countrywide Financial purchase. A big chunk of the losses stem from an $ 8.5 billion settlement announced last month over investors claims linked to countrywide loans sold off during the housing boom.

Bank of America´s huge loss contrasted with strong results Tuesday from San Francisco based Wells Fargo ,which earned $ 3.7 billion in the quarter despite slow revenue growth. New York based investment bank Goldman Sachs posted a profit of $ 1.05 billion, although the amount was less than analysts had expected.

The settlement of a major class-action suit is shedding new light on a controversial real estate practice that home buyers and sellers typically know little about  fees paid to realty brokers and agents for promoting home warranty policies.

The case involves potentially thousands of buyers and sellers who bought warranty coverage from American Home Shield Corp. between May 2008 and March of this year. American Home Shield is the dominant player in the home warranty field, with sales of $658 million in 2010, according to the company. Home warranty policies offer repairs and replacements for owners when specified home systems and appliances malfunction.

Attorneys representing the plaintiffs say as many as 500,000 consumers may be members of the class, though neither they nor American Home Shield would speculate on how many ultimately will file for and receive cash from the settlement.

In their suit, the plaintiffs alleged that American Home Shield violated federal law by paying kickbacks to realty brokerage firms and agents for promoting warranty policies to their customers. The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act prohibits payments for referrals of "settlement services" in connection with most mortgage transactions. It also bans the giving or receiving of fees or other compensation when no substantive services are rendered.