Business news in brief

Malvern Bancorp Inc., the Paoli company that owns Malvern Federal Savings Bank, says it has sold "a substantial portion of its problem loans," with a face value of $20.4 million, to an unnamed buyer at a loss of $10 million.

The bank will charge most of the amount off as losses.

Malvern also says it has paid back $20 million advanced by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh, ahead of schedule, for a $1.4 million penalty, in order to reduce its interest payments.

Ronald Anderson, the company's president, said in a statement that the bank now met government capital guidelines and would be able to "return to profitability and to grow earnings." - Joseph N. DiStefano

Sixty-eight Democrats in the House of Representatives, led by Reps. Marc Veasey of Texas and Ed Pastor of Arizona, sent a letter to President Obama, urging him to intervene and call off the Justice Department lawsuit and allow American Airlines and US Airways Group to move forward with their merger.

The representatives expressed concern about the lawsuit's economic impact on "tens of thousands" of airline employees, the traveling public, and communities across the country that would be harmed by the Justice Department's legal challenge. - Linda Loyd

American Airlines said it planned to add nonstop flights to Hong Kong and Shanghai from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport next year. American CEO Tom Horton said the expansion into Asia would help build an "even stronger foundation" to help its merger with US Airways Group, Philadelphia's dominant airline. The Justice Department filed a lawsuit in August to block the merger, citing harm to consumers and higher fares. A federal trial in the case is scheduled Nov. 25. - Linda Loyd

Jurors said Wednesday that billionaire Mark Cuban did not commit insider trading when he sold his shares in an Internet company in 2004 after learning of a development that would dilute the value of his investment in Mamma.com Inc. The jury in federal district court in Dallas found that the Securities and Exchange Commission failed to prove several key elements of its case, including that Cuban traded on nonpublic information. The nine-member jury deliberated for about four hours. The trial spanned three weeks. Cuban is the owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team in the NBA. - Associated Press

Microsoft Corp. is releasing its long-awaited Windows 8.1 upgrade as a free download starting at 7 a.m. Thursday. It addresses some of the gripes people have had with Windows 8, the dramatically different operating system that attempts to bridge the divide between tablets and PCs. Windows 8.1 still features the dual worlds that Windows 8 created when it came out last October.

On one hand, it features a touch-enabled tile interface resembling what is found in tablet computers. On the other, it includes the old desktop mode, in which the keyboard and mouse still reign.

The Windows 8.1 update is free for current owners of Windows 8. Simply go to the Windows Store app to find it. It may take a few hours for updates to reach everyone. Computers with Windows 8.1 already installed will go on sale Friday local time. That is also when people will be able to buy stand-alone copies of Windows 8.1. - Associated Press

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay a $100 million penalty and admitted that its traders acted "recklessly" during a series of London trades that ultimately cost the bank $6 billion.

The settlement announced Wednesday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission comes less than a month after JPMorgan, the nation's largest bank, agreed to pay $920 million and admit fault in a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission and other U.S. and British regulators.

The stunning trading losses that surfaced in April 2012 shook the financial world and damaged JPMorgan's reputation. The CFTC deal differs from the previous agreement because JPMorgan is formally acknowledging that its traders recklessly distorted prices to reduce the banks' losses at the expense of other market participants. In the SEC agreement, JPMorgan admitted only that it failed to supervise those traders. - Associated Press