Laura Alix

HSBC, Bank of the West and Fannie Mae are among those offering green mortgage bonds, financing commercial clients’ efforts to rein in carbon emissions and developing other novel products that help customers tackle environmental challenges.

With its first branch outside the Northeast U.S., the unit of the Spanish banking giant Banco Santander wants to reach international clients who are familiar with the brand.

An international coalition led by Bank of America chief Brian Moynihan has proposed a framework for assessing how well big corporations are meeting the environmental, social and governance expectations of investors who value stakeholder capitalism.

The fund will support Community Development Financial Institutions that lend to minority- and women-owned businesses. The Charlotte, N.C., company is the latest big bank to make a large dollar commitment focused on alleviating racial and economic inequality.

Lenders should be subjected to tough reviews of their readiness for economic threats posed by severe weather, required to disclose risks lurking in their portfolios and perhaps forced to set aside extra capital, a government study recently recommended.

Banks reported decent loan growth in the spring and early summer as businesses rushed to draw down credit lines and tap the Paycheck Protection Program. But demand has been muted since, and bankers can only guess when it will pick back up.

Several companies said this week they’re slashing expenses as the economy limps along. Others would prefer to keep investing in new technologies and hold off on moves like branch closings to better gauge which changes in consumer behavior will stick.

The four-year plan submitted as part of its acquisition of E-Trade includes grants to community development organizations and support for uniform vendor diversity standards.

The Ohio regional added a feature to its mobile app that analyzes a customer's spending habits before sweeping small amounts of cash into a savings account.

A New York CDFI is halfway to its $100 million fundraising goal for a fund that would put deposits in Black-owned banks and make loans to key businesses or projects. It hopes the moves will improve availability of capital and access to mainstream financial products.