John Reosti

Quaint Oak Bancorp sold its majority stake in an equipment lender less than two years after the partnership helped drive record profits at the Southampton-based company.

The Charleston-based company agreed to pay $267 million to acquire Piedmont Bank in Peachtree Corners, Georgia. It's United's 34th deal, but the first since 2021.

OakNorth Bank in London is eager to utilize the data it's collected from providing risk management software to American banks over the past five years. Its growth plans include eventually acquiring a charter here and making commercial real estate loans.

In talks with OCC officials, "it became obvious that we would not gain near-term approval given their recent experience with multifamily and CRE positions," FirstSun CEO Neal Arnold says. The companies announced other revisions to their deal, too.

Banks maintain lists of consulting firms that they trust to help troubled commercial borrowers to fix their businesses. These specialists say they're getting more calls, especially in areas such as multifamily and CRE, from business owners who need help.

The first bank failure of 2024 will result in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Fulton nearly doubling deposits in Philadelphia, a market it has viewed as strategically important for several years.

Isabel Casillas Guzman, administrator of the Small Business Administration, wants the agency to get involved in direct lending, a practice that was discontinued during the Clinton administration. Congress has not embraced the idea, to put it mildly.

The New York-based bank says it will push its concentration of commercial real estate loans below 400% of risk-based capital over the next two years and focus more on C&I.

The Jackson, Mississippi, company will use proceeds from the sale of its Fisher Brown Bottrell Insurance unit to restructure its investment portfolio, moving $1.6 billion of low-yield securities off the balance sheet.

Republicans on the House and Senate Small Business committees are accusing the SBA of being irresponsible in granting Funding Circle permission to participate in its flagship loan-guarantee program.

At a time of mild or nonexistent loan growth, middle-market borrowers in the Lone Star State are providing a boost to Fifth Third Bancorp and Huntington Bancshares.

The Cleveland-based bank is projecting steady growth in net interest income even as credit losses remain manageable. But Chairman and CEO Chris Gorman also said that he thinks a recession is likely.

After the Minneapolis-based company reported stubbornly high commercial deposit costs, it reduced its full-year forecast for net interest income by $200 million-$500 million.

The Buffalo, New York-based bank set a goal four years ago to limit its commercial real estate loan portfolio to 160% of its capital and reserves, and it's closing in on that target, says Chief Financial Officer Daryl Bible.

The giant custody bank convinced clients to park more money in accounts with the Boston-based company, prompting it to increase its full-year 2024 projections, Chief Financial Officer Eric Aboaf said.

The beleaguered Long Island bank has recently seen at least 16 teams walk out the door, according to announcements by Dime Community Bancshares and Peapack-Gladstone Financial.

The decision to approve the fintech's application to make 7(a) loans came nearly a month after Funding Circle's U.K.-based CEO hinted it is considering a sale of its U.S. operations, alarming some members of Congress.

Mergers have left Virginia without an independent statewide financial institution. Atlantic Union CEO John Asbury is trying to change that.

VersaBank in London, Ontario, agreed nearly two years ago to buy a small Minnesota bank. The buyer's CEO says he remains hopeful approval will come soon.

Each spring during the rush of annual meetings, a handful of financial institutions take heat from shareholders who demand new strategies, management shakeups and, at times, even a sale of the company.