John Reosti

Fourth-quarter profits rose 10% at the Cleveland company as investment banking income hit a record and nonperforming loans plummeted. Executives say charge-offs will probably start rising in late 2022 but that fee income from capital markets transactions will keep growing.

The Boston company is forecasting larger earnings growth in the first year after closing its $3.5 billion deal than it projected in September. On the flip side, the acquisition will take longer to close than initially expected.

The Mississippi bank’s addition of more than a dozen bankers last year helped drive a $250 million increase in new loans during the fourth quarter. To keep the momentum going, CEO John Hairston said he intends to hire aggressively in 2022.

David Felan was most recently an executive vice president at Texas Capital Bancshares. In his new role, he will oversee the Kansas bank's expansion in the Lone Star State's hottest markets.

OneUnited's new installment-loan product is meant to break customers out of a cycle of debt. It will compete with similar offerings from heavyweights like Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Huntington.

There was an estimated $80 billion of fraud in the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, which the Small Business Administration managed on its own. Republicans argue that's evidence the agency is unsuited to make direct loans, as the White House wants it to do.

Newity was founded to buy and administer Paycheck Protection Program loans. Now that the program has ended, the company is teaming with a bank on a platform that offers Small Business Administration 7(a) loans.

John D. "Jerry" Hawke had already established himself as a preeminent banking lawyer when he took the helm of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 1998. Hawke, who died Monday, ran the agency for six years and issued a controversial regulation shielding national banks from state regulatory oversight.

The new name, Navy Federal Investment Services, reflects a wider range of products than the previous handle, Navy Federal Brokerage Services.

The bank, which donated a total of $1.6 million in 2020 and 2021, endowed the new organization with $4 million.

The community bank leverage ratio is set to revert to its prepandemic level of 9% on Jan. 1. Bankers say the move is premature and are supporting a bill that would keep the ratio at or below 8.5% through 2024.

The community bank said it would will not renew their employment contracts, which terminate March 20, but that it intends to keep them as executives.

The $50 million subordinated debt issuance is large for a credit union and likely the first of its kind to receive an investment-grade rating. It comes days before a National Credit Union Administration rule will take effect to enable a wider range of credit unions to raise capital through debt offerings.

To strengthen ties with entrepreneurs, Citizens Bank of Edmond in Oklahoma and the de novo Genesis Bank in California offer co-working, education and other resources.

Technology that Biz2Credit used to help certified public accountants obtain Paycheck Protection Program loans for their clients is being updated to offer term loans to small-business owners.

The $6.7 billion-asset Byline Bancorp plans to invest most of the savings into digital banking.

Driver Management says CEO Vernon Hill’s aggressive deposit-gathering strategy is not paying off for shareholders and wants the company to merge with a bank that would deploy the deposits into higher-yielding loans.

Facing a lawsuit from a disgruntled investor, the Arkansas company has released additional information about how it arrived at the $919 million price it’s paying for Happy Bancshares.

The proceeds will support Silvergate’s network that facilitates cryptocurrency transactions and a leveraged lending product that provides loans collateralized by bitcoin.

The deal for Summit Financial furthers First Financial’s strategy of acquiring national niche business lines.