Alan Kline

At least five regional banks on Thursday discarded concerns about the global economy, stocks, interest rates and credit quality, forecasting loan growth for the rest of this year.

Signature Bank in New York reported a record profit in the fourth quarter as strong loan growth more than offset continuing weakness in its portfolio of taxi medallion loans.

Still facing revenue challenges, Regions, PNC and U.S. Bank vowed to reduce overhead in 2016. The cuts are less about bolstering short-term returns than funding investments in cutting-edge technologies or new products and services to remain competitive.

Regions Financial in Birmingham, Ala., reported double-digit earnings growth in the fourth quarter as gains in both fee income and loan balances helped to offset a sharply higher loan-loss provision related to weakness in its energy portfolio.

Banks can help ease a severe national shortage in affordable rental properties — and make money doing it.

The Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade is said to be prompting at least one large bank to boost the rates it pays to depositors.

BNP Paribas is considering selling or spinning off one of its two U.S. banking subsidiaries as it aims to boost capital.

Under Jill Castilla, the once-sleepy Citizens has been transformed into a thoroughly modern institution that has become a model for other small banks trying to stay relevant in an increasingly competitive financial services marketplace. For that reason and more, she is one of American Banker's three community bankers of the year.

First Republic Bank in San Francisco has extended the contract of longtime Chairman and Chief Executive James Herbert for another two years.

CEOS of midsize banks traveled to Washington recently to seek relief from some of the more onerous regulations that they say are making it harder for them to compete with both big banks and largely unregulated marketplace lenders that are aggressively going after their customers.

Whether it's regulation, cyber threats, vendor backlog or just plain inertia, U.S. banks still lag their overseas counterparts when it comes to mobile adoption.

Driven by solid gains in both interest and noninterest income, Northern Trust Corp. in Chicago reported a profit of $234.6 million in the third quarter, up 15% from the same period in 2014. Earnings per share climbed 14%, to 96 cents, in line with the estimates of analysts polled by Bloomberg.

Loan-loss provisions are trending up, partly due to an increase in overall lending but also because lenders are concerned about future losses on loans tied to the energy and manufacturing sectors.

Regions Financial in Birmingham, Ala., reported gains in loans and overall revenues in the third quarter, but its net income declined from the same period last year due to increases in its premium for federal deposit insurance and provision for loan losses.

Acquisitions would seem to be a logical course of action for regional banks struggling to cut costs and boost revenues in the low interest rate environment, but some bank chief executives are less open to the idea than others as comments by the heads of First Horizon and SunTrust demonstrate.

First Horizon National Corp. reported a sharp increase in its third-quarter profit as an increase in average loans, lower overhead and a decrease in income tax payments helped to offset a 9% decline in total revenue.

Sound growth plans, not quirks of geography, define this year’s class of community bank all-stars.

Regional banks did a much better job of expanding revenue than their megabank counterparts in the third quarter, but they had to spend more to do so and risk angering investors in a tight-margin environment.

Profits at First Republic Bank fell slightly in the third quarter as increased salary and benefits costs and a decline in noninterest income could not offset strong growth in loans, deposits and wealth management assets.

With Beth Mooney in charge, KeyCorp has emerged as one of the industry's top regional banking companies while becoming a model for workplace diversity.