John Reosti

Led by veteran banker Stephen Gordon, Genesis Bank in Newport Beach, California, plans to use the funds pledged by private equity firms and other investors to roll up community banks in the Western U.S.

The changes include elevating several recently hired executives while eliminating nearly two dozen jobs and trimming annual operating expenses by $6 million.

The Michigan City company, part of a growing list of banks announcing similar overhauls, aims to sell nearly $400 million of securities and reinvest the proceeds in higher-yielding loans.

Carter Bankshares in Martinsville, Virginia, is attempting to exit a longstanding relationship with West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice through a seldom-used collections tool that was at the center of a court hearing this week.

The 130-year-old Warsaw Federal Savings & Loan achieved a minority status after retooling its board this summer. Its CEO, who is also new to the job, has no plans to slow the pace of change at the depositor-owned bank.

The Ohio-based regional bank has laid out an ambitious expansion blueprint, including new health care asset-based lending, a Native American financial services unit and a push into commercial banking in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The Pennsylvania bank has agreed to sell its Exchange Underwriters subsidiary to World Insurance Associates for $30.5 million, saying that the deal will help pad its capital and liquidity.

Banking advocates claim FDIC's proposed corporate governance guidelines could undermine their legal duty to shareholders, despite the agency's claim that the proposal wouldn't break new ground.

The seller, Merchants and Manufacturers Bank in Illinois, has experienced rapid growth and zero lifetime losses in its niche portfolio. First Busey says that business line was a key reason it decided to buy its in-state peer.

Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. has been a prolific acquirer, purchasing the insurance brokerages from multiple banks over the last year. Its management has indicated it has another $3.5 billion that it can use for more deals.

Dream Chasers upped its bid for Carver, one of the nation's largest and highest-profile Black banks, by a quarter, to $3.25 per share, dismissing the growth strategy interim CEO Craig MacKay outlined in a recent shareholder letter.

The financial institutions in American Banker's Best Banks to Work For ranking are skilled in hiring new talent and ensuring those employees want to stay.

Gov. Jim Justice alleges that Carter Bancorp engineered a technical default on a multi-million lending relationship and has blocked his company's efforts to refinance with other lenders. The lawsuit extends a dispute that started after the death of the bank's founder in 2017.

A key gauge of activity that tracks startups most likely to create jobs declined in October, potentially signaling the start of a slowdown after the rapid increase in interest rates. It presents a red flag for community banks and credit unions that are major lenders to small businesses.

Since the end of the Small Business Administration's 2022 fiscal year, the average loan size in its flagship program has dropped more than six figures. The addition of three new nondepository lenders could further drive down this figure.

Small business clients are important to financial institutions and expected to drive growth. But to achieve that, banks must teach them to be stronger consumers.

Los Angeles-based Lendistry — in less than two years — became the largest Black-run 7(a) lender. Its CEO credits a concerted effort by the Small Business Administration to reach out to minority lenders and businesses, whose participation in the lending program is growing.

Months prior to its failure, Citizens Bank in Sac City had entered into a consent order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Iowa Division of Banking due to problems in its portfolio of commercial trucking loans.

This week the Small Business Administration followed through with a controversial policy change by granting access to its flagship 7(a) program to three additional nonbank lenders. These new participants vowed to ramp up their small-business lending efforts.

Citing the need to conserve capital, Blue Ridge Bankshares indefinitely extended a dividend suspension that it announced in July. The bank remains well-capitalized, but it saw its ratios shrink in the third quarter.