John Maxfield

Wells Fargo's ability to cross-sell multiple products to customers is a powerful competitive advantage.

What happens when two former banking giants sit down for a conversation about banking?

According to former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, the average bank is roughly half as profitable today as it was before the financial crisis of 2008-2009.

While it's always tempting to boil things down to one or two root causes, the reality is that financial crisis of 2008-09 was caused by a confluence of dozens of factors.

Find out how interest rates and oil prices could affect the banking industry this year, and what investors should do about it.

During the financial crisis, this Fool worked at a Barnes & Noble. Here's how he made his way to the top of the store in less than two years and spearheaded an increase in same-store sales in the worst retail environment since the Great Depression.

In 1957, American Commercial Bank had a mere $234 million in assets on its balance sheet. Fifty-one years later, it had transformed into the $2.3 trillion universal banking behemoth Bank of America.

If you're interested in banking, these 10 books will provide an excellent starting point to master the subject.

Tighter financial regulations may in fact fuel faster economic growth.

With the price of oil down by more than half from its 2014 high, many banks are starting to feel the heat.

In order to survive the intermittent but not infrequent crises that besiege the financial industry, a bank must also maintain a fortress balance sheet.

When Continental Illinois became the first too-big-to-fail bank in 1984, it set a number of precedents that are just as relevant today as they were three decades ago.

A new partnership between Lending Club and a consortium of community banks offers both promise and peril.

Look at the two best banks today, and they have one thing in common: Carl Reichardt.

The orderly transition of leadership at Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase has allowed them to surge ahead of Bank of America and Citigroup.

Over the last few years, banks have increased the liquidity of their balance sheets and, by doing so, have better prepared the industry for future crises.

It's impossible to deny that the performance of McDonald's in 2014 left much to be desired. But history proves that it's far too early to count the fast-food giant out just yet.

From the trend in hedge fund growth to the distribution of assets by hedge-fund type, these four charts give a great overview of the industry.

After reading dozens of books about banking, here are 50 of my favorite quotes about the centuries-old profession.

Citigroup's aggressive pursuit of market share is what nearly led to its demise.