John Reosti

While branch closings remain the norm throughout the industry, the hunt for suddenly scarce deposits is prompting some community banks to move in the opposite direction and expand their branch networks.

The custody giant benefited from rising interest rates, which helped offset choppy financial markets and a decline in fee income.

Cleveland-based KeyCorp posts a subdued profit in the wake of a loan loss provision that was more than six times greater than the level of fourth-quarter net charge-offs.

The New York bank reported a 17% drop-off in deposits during the fourth quarter as it sought to reduce its concentration in the digital currency realm. It expects its balance sheet to stabilize in the second half of 2023.

Robin Vince, who took the helm in September, said the world's largest custody bank has delivered disappointing results over the past decade, including in 2022, when he said it failed to control costs effectively.

AmeriServ Financial in Johnstown boosted earnings through the first nine months of 2022, but not enough to satisfy Abbott Cooper, who called the company a "prolonged underperformer."

The bank hired an executive from The Bancorp to manage its risk operations after the incumbent, Jeff Curry, announced his retirement.

The Tupelo, Mississippi-based institution hasn't made a bank deal since 2018, but it has acquired two asset-based lenders in the past 10 months.

The California bank, which owns the technology underlying the Diem stablecoin from Meta, said its deposits plunged 68% in the fourth quarter but that it has more than enough cash on hand to weather the storm.

The Mississippi bank would take a big hit to capital and income but avoid the risk of a bigger payout from a guilty verdict in litigation against banks that did business with Allen Stanford's disgraced financial empire.

Northeast Bank in Portland is putting capital earned from the Paycheck Protection Program to use, purchasing $1.1 billion of loans and launching a small-dollar Small Business Administration lending program.

The Amesbury-based bank reported solid growth and profitability throughout Dave Mansfield's 9-year tenure. The decision followed news of losses tied to the bank's move into digital-asset lending, though the bank has yet to file a 10-Q for the third quarter.

Some lenders to companies owned by women, minorities and veterans say they'd prefer that the Small Business Administration strengthen its Community Advantage program rather than bring them into the agency's flagship loan-guarantee program.

Though housing is experiencing severe rate-related stress, mortgage banking remains central to the Denver-based bank's business model. The Texas market has held up better than much of the rest of the country, company executives say.

A group of shareholders in the Dubuque, -Iowa-based bank, including a former chairman and CEO, have agreed to quit advocating for a sale of the $19.7 billion-asset company

The Small Business Administration must be prepared to effectively oversee any new lenders it allows in its flagship 7(a) loan guarantee program to guard against fraud and other risks, Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Small Business Committee warned.

Micron's planned semiconductor chip factory near Syracuse along with IBM's expansion project in the Hudson Valley could inject as much as $120 billion into markets inside the footprint of the combined NBT Bancorp and Salisbury Bancorp. NBT CEO John Watt calls the economic investments a "transformational opportunity" for the region.

Kearny Financial is partially restructuring its balance sheet in response to a problem that many banks are facing. The bank's actions should result in a sizeable income boost once they're fully phased in, an analyst said.

Citing a congressional report, SBA says it will investigate PPP operations at several fintechs, community banks and other participants. The review raises questions about plans to open up the agency's flagship loan-guarantee program to more nonbanks.

After focusing its de novo branching plans on the Carolinas in recent years, the Cincinnati-based bank is ready to shift its attention to Florida and — eventually — to Nashville and Atlanta.