Community Banking

Community banks have a thin margin of error between success and failure these day as interest rates remain low, loan demand stays weak and operating costs keep climbing. The temptations will be strong in coming months to engage in overly risky lending, chase yield by investing in long-duration securities, make ill-advised acquisitions and other fatal missteps. Experience is critical, yet several small banks are reverting to a practice that fell out of favor during the financial crisis: recruiting celebrities to serve as directors.

M&A Midyear: How the U.S. Elections and Crisis in Spain Will Shape Bank M&A

Uncertainty. At home, and abroad. It makes community bankers weighing the sale of their bank want to pull out their hair, and fuels speculation if any U.S. units of Spanish banks are for sale. The economy is perplexing enough, and election-year politics — Obama vs. Romney, the fiscal cliff in Washington — makes decision-making tough: Should I sell now in case capital gains taxes go up? Maybe I should wait to see if the Republicans win and conditions improve? Meanwhile, as the European economic crisis persists, bank M&A insiders are curious whether Bankia wants to sell City National Bank of Florida.

Mobile Banking

With mobile banking, some companies are just phoning it in. Others are going a step further and trying to lead the pack by taking risks with new technology and new social media tools. Square, one of the best-known companies behind simple mobile card readers, is taking to the social photo-sharing site Pinterest to explain one of its more complex products. U.S. Bank is borrowing technology popular in other industries and applying it to banking. Google, by contrast, might be stepping back from its original plan with mobile payments to rethink the importance of tying offers to digital wallets. Its latest update to its Maps app makes its rewards offer system for Android location-based instead of transaction-based.

Payments

Payments technology is changing rapidly. Some companies are making major shifts in the way they handle loyalty and rewards. Others are getting a better grasp on mobile devices. And in Canada, a new electronic payment system could validate other fledgling digital currencies, such as the Bitcoin.

Mortgages - Home Renovation

Mortgage bankers are digging deep these days as they seek to renovate their badly damaged industry. For some, the repair job involves responding to the new regulations governing appraisals by revamping what is a tricky process even in the best of times. Other mortgage executives are seeking to balance the need to continue cutting costs with expensive regulatory mandates related to the national servicing settlement and other legal issues. As always, the current bout of turmoil spells opportunity for those intent on seizing the moment. Fair Isaac, for example, is seeking to recover lost business by providing its banking customers with new forms of information about borrowers that will help ensure the rebuilt industry endures.

Analyst Roundtable: Big Regional Banks at a Crossroads

American Banker invited three banking industry experts — Matthew Friend, a senior executive at Accenture Payment Services; Gerard S. Cassidy, the managing director of equity research at RBC Capital Markets; and Claude A. Hanley Jr., a partner at Capital Performance Group — to analyze the regulatory, economic and business threats that face regional banks and to predict their fate.

• Full Transcript of Roundtable Discussion

Community Banking

With organic growth options limited and good acquisitions hard to find, more and more community banks are finding that the quickest — and cheapest — way to boost assets is to steal talent from rival banks. Some are poaching lenders as a way to enter a new line of business, such as asset-based lending, while others are doing so to boost market share in businesses they are already in, such as mortgages. But no matter the reason, the goal is the same: bring in bankers with established books of business and watch the loan portfolio grow. Also, how Extraco Corp.'s branch makeover could serve as a template for banks looking to improve efficiency without sacrificing service.

M&A Annual: Smart Shoppers

TCF, Wells Fargo, BB&T and other banks with a discriminating eye are finding a way to add revenue and minimize risk: line of business deals. Big banks and small ones are picking up niche lenders, insurance agencies, trust units and other specialized businesses at a time when the whole-bank deal market remains relatively quiet. Meanwhile, failed banks remain an inviting target for some buyers. We take a look at what goes on behind the scenes of the hush-hush process of bidding for a failed bank.