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Five Star Bank, which is based in a rural part of New York state, has embraced digital lending, banking-as-a-service, real-time payments, bitcoin and more. “Those that don’t innovate don’t survive,” says Chief Administrative Officer Sean Willett.

The companies' moves came a day after Visa and Mastercard said they were halting business in Russia because of its attack on Ukraine.

The $7.6 billion deal was originally expected to close in the fourth quarter of last year, but the banks had pushed back their deadline until June. Once the merger is complete, the combined bank will have more than $200 billion in assets.

Empire Financial Federal Credit Union had been placed into conservatorship by the National Credit Union Administration in May because of “unsafe and unsound practices.” Another credit union has assumed its assets and deposits.

The White House is rejecting Republican demands to split up its nominees to the Federal Reserve, with President Biden’s spokeswoman telling GOP lawmakers to show up and vote no on Sarah Bloom Raskin rather than further stalling consideration.

As return-to-office plans accelerate — with hopes they will stick this time —  many bosses are embracing new setups and perks meant to evoke the comforts of home. At Mizuho Americas, Bank of Montreal and Deutsche Bank, the changes have gone even further: New York workers came back from the pandemic to entirely different buildings. 

The deal with HBI Employees Credit Union follows two other mergers Spire struck last year that brought it to $1.9 billion of assets.

Here is a rundown of the regulatory, diversity, competitive and other challenges that executives explored at the Credit Union National Association's annual gathering in Washington.

The hacker group is threatening to publish personal data from multiple U.S. financial institutions and using known vulnerabilities to get into their systems.

Russia reverberations, a rebranding, a resignation and more in banking news this week.