Laura Alix

Regions Financial is taking steps across its 1,500-branch network to embrace consumers with autism and train its staff to help them. Business development, not just compassion, is part of the motivation.

Even as units of a larger holding company, local banks fight the perception that they can’t provide sophisticated services like corporate or private banking. Executives say that unifying the brand will help Synovus better compete against larger players.

A one-time capital gain in last year’s first quarter obscured strong loan and deposit growth at BNP Paribas' U.S. subsidiary.

The Cincinnati bank's profit-improvement plan is as detailed as it gets, but there is an argument to be made it is heavy on metrics and light on vision.

The Sun Belt lender also increased fee income and kept expenses down in the first quarter.

The Tulsa, Okla., company also benefited from higher interest and fee revenue while keeping expenses under control.

The Cincinnati company’s 1Q profits were hurt as it scaled back in key consumer and commercial credits, paid higher severance and saw fee income fall.

Zions beat expectations on several bits of good news, but it reported about $30 million of chargeoffs tied to a single commercial borrower.

Strong gains in low-cost health savings account balances helped fuel loan growth at the Waterbury, Conn., company.

Executives at BB&T, KeyCorp and Citizens are milking commercial lending niches and balancing cost control with new investments while waiting for more rate hikes to fatten margins.