Chris Cumming

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the founders of CertusBank that claimed they were fired as part of a racist conspiracy at the Columbia, S.C., company.

The $1.5 billion-asset bank lost $15 million in the third quarter, its twelfth straight quarterly loss, according to a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. call report made public Friday.

Megabanks continue to increase their share of personal trust and fiduciary assets, leaving most small banks on the margins of the business. But community banks could stage a comeback by focusing on quality service and the slightly less-rich.

Community banks in the Northeast have gotten healthier in the past year, and loan growth has nearly doubled. Now OCC officials are worried that banks may be overstretching to protect their thin profit margins.

Citi's sponsorship of a bike-sharing program in New York has been a marketing coup. Can the bank achieve similar success in Miami?

A Minnesota community bank has made an offer to buy American Bank of St. Paul in what would be the first time a bank was forced into a sale over unpaid trust-preferred debt.

The price of crude oil has fallen 25% in four months, but banks most closely tied to the energy industry aren't worried. They say risk-mitigation strategies make a bust unlikely, and it would take a severe and prolonged slump to hurt credit quality.

To win over younger customers, banks must offer free products that work straight out of the box, while also reducing red tape. To hire the best millennial-generation employees, banks need to appeal to younger workers' global values.

John Ikard, a Colorado bank CEO and incoming chairman of the American Bankers Association, hopes to score a few legislative victories on behalf of bankers, who he says have spent years on the defensive.

New York regulator Benjamin Lawsky may use the cybersecurity rules he's proposed for virtual-currency companies as a model for traditional banks. That would subject the financial institutions his agency supervises to the most stringent data-security rules anywhere.

New York regulator Benjamin Lawsky may use the cybersecurity rules he's proposed for virtual-currency companies as a model for traditional banks. That would subject the financial institutions his agency supervises to the most stringent data-security rules anywhere.

Webster Financial in Waterbury, Conn., reported an increase in quarterly profit on the strength of its loan growth.

Pennant Management, which handles assets for community banks and other clients, disclosed that it could be holding up to $179 million in fake USDA-insured loans. Industry observers said the firm's failure to take certain precautions, along with weaknesses in the secondary market for USDA loans, invited fraud.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Thursday that M&T Bancorp would pay $3.1 million in fines and reimbursement for deceptively marketing its checking accounts as free.

The Golden State is home to nearly a quarter of the banks on Sandler O'Neill's annual list of the top-performing small-cap institutions, a hint that the state could be returning to its pre-recession strength. Banks in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic also had strong performances.

Community banks in the region are getting better, but the hunt for short-term income could bite them down the road, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in its quarterly report.

Community banks and credit unions have filed class actions against Home Depot and Target, using untested legal arguments to claim the retailers should pay banks’ expenses tied to recent data breaches. There is very little legal precedent here, and hundreds of millions of dollars could hinge on the court rulings in these cases.

Tory Nixon played defense for San Francisco's famed NFL team in some of its glory years, but now he's on offense, seeking to build out commercial lending and retail operations in Northern California for California Bank & Trust.

More community banks are looking to outsource their mortgage operations to reduce the regulatory burden, but structuring such deals — and determining proper compensation — can be tricky. Here's how two Chicago-area lenders solved the problem.

We all say things can be better. These women act.

• FirstMerit's Sandy Pierce: Standing up for Detroit
• Bank of America's Cathy Bessant: Paying It Forward
• M&T's Michele Trolli: Leading a Bear of a Digital Transformation
• Zions' LeeAnne Linderman: Starting a Charity from Scratch
• RBC's Lisa Pollina: Creating Jobs for Military Veterans
• NorthStar's Julie Goodridge: Fighting for Investors and Gay Marriage