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Total loans increased 6% from a year earlier, driven by gains in the company's asset- and wealth-management arm and corporate and investment bank, though consumer and commercial lending fell. Fees from advising on merger and acquisition deals almost tripled.

Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Supervision Randal Quarles will be removed from his role as the main watchdog of Wall Street lenders after his title officially expires this week.

Regulators’ efforts to open the federal banking system to crypto firms and other nonbanks have been hampered by differing legal interpretations and challenges by state regulators. Congressional action updating the 19th-century law could bring much-needed clarity, observers say.

Executives at Umpqua Holdings and Columbia Banking System said the deal could progress more slowly than usual because of a perceived approval backlog at the Federal Reserve. The two Pacific Northwest-based banks are seeking to combine into a $50 billion-asset company.

JAM Fintop's Banktech fund, which is backed by community banks, has invested in Monit, a small-business predictive analytics company. Two of the banks have expressed interest in using its product.

The bank-supported blockchain organization plans to use the acquired assets to speed testing for digital currencies.

Jonathan Rosen, CEO of the specialty finance division at Synovus Financial, perished with his assistant, his daughter and her friend when the plane that Rosen was piloting crashed. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the accident.

More banks are boosting salaries to lure and keep workers in a highly competitive hiring market, but the pressure is on to trim expenses elsewhere to offset the pay hikes.

Nonfungible tokens, which provide proof of ownership in the digital world, are booming. Payment companies are betting they will require payment rails to fund high-value purchases and attract new customers for loyalty marketing.

Silvio Tavares, the former chief executive of the Digital Commerce Alliance, will lead the credit-bureau analytics firm.