Chris Cumming

Banking regulators have been coy about whether they approve serving marijuana businesses, but lately one regional Fed bank has taken a strong position against the practice. But there are nearly three dozen Fed-supervised banks serving pot companies — one of many seeming inconsistencies in an opaque and confusing regulatory policy.

HSBC Holdings' plan to trim and sharpen the focus of its North American business unit in an effort to boost its profit appears to be paying off.

Banks have added so much capital in the past several years that they're better protected from declines in real estate values than they were before the financial crisis.

KeyCorp's deal to buy First Niagara is a return to significant M&A for a company that has long been content to stay on the sidelines. But getting such a deal approved is tougher than ever, and will test Beth Mooney’s regulatory juice.

Ally Financial in Detroit drew more deposits into its online bank last quarter, which helped improve its lending margin even as profits declined.

Nobody thought it would be pretty, but last quarter's results were even worse than expected, and low fee revenue is largely to blame. Trading and mortgage banking were particularly bad, and few of the big banks managed to offset the declines.

UMB Financial in Kansas City, Mo., reported lower third-quarter profit, due to weaker revenue from its Scout Funds arm and merger costs.

The third quarter showed the kind of solid results Citizens Financial hopes to achieve as a public company split off from Royal Bank of Scotland, but much work remains for Chief Executive Bruce Van Saun. He spoke with American Banker about what went right this quarter and how he's working to change the company's culture.

Citizens Financial Group in Providence, R.I., managed to build up lending and hold its margins relatively steady last quarter, leading to a healthy gain in profits.

CIT also plans to sell peripheral businesses to simplify its structure, less than three months after the close of its $3.4 billion deal for OneWest Bank.

Profits fell at New York Community Bancorp in Westbury, N.Y., as it continued to manage its balance sheet to stay below a key regulatory threshold.

The most international of the megabanks surprised analysts with a strong quarter Thursday, despite unrest in some of its distant markets. Citi execs see a slowdown coming in its emerging markets but say there is no reason to panic yet.

Bank of America's long effort to become a slimmer, more profitable retail bank could be starting to pay off. In a tough quarter for revenue growth, its consumer banking division gained traction thanks to branch consolidation, investments in mobile banking and other factors.

Who cares what time a bank announces its quarterly earnings? A lot of people, it turns out, from investors who bet large on the data to bankers who use crafty scheduling tactics to announce before their competitors.

Independence Bancshares in South Carolina last week fired its CEO and gave up its dreams of shaking up the payments world after losing nearly $9 million on the effort. Many details are still unknown, but it looks like a case study for what can go wrong when community banks invest in technology.

Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, will add $45 million to its litigation reserve in the third quarter after a judge ordered it to repay $71.8 million to the victims of a fraud scheme.

The Federal Reserve Board has approved the merger of M&T Bank in Buffalo, N.Y., and Hudson City Bancorp in Paramus, N.J., after more than three years of delay. The approval came on the day the regulator had set as a deadline to announce its verdict on the deal.

A long-expected change to the rules for provisioning against bad loans is coming soon, and opponents are going on the offensive, arguing that it is impractical and would be especially hard for small banks to comply with. But few concessions, if any, are predicted.

The CFPB is rewriting the rules for debt collection, and in the meantime fines and penalties are coming fast and furiously. Banks need to closely scrutinize every debt collector and debt buyer they do business with, or even bring collections back in-house, said attorney Joann Needleman.

The first female COO in Northern Trust's history has worked there for her entire 35-year career, rising through the management ranks by taking roles outside of her comfort zone. Now she's on the short list of potential successors to CEO Rick Waddell.