Laura Alix

Royal Bank of Canada got an earnings boost from its U.S. capital markets business and its ownership of City National Bank in Los Angeles, helping to offset softer growth at home.

New mothers were bailing out from the Cincinnati bank at twice the rate of other women employees, so it decided to offer a maternity concierge service that would help them with stressful chores.

Online lenders are evading New York regulations by claiming their loans are “made” by federally chartered or out-of-state partner banks, Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo told lawmakers Monday.

The city joins a growing list of municipalities that have filed similar lawsuits, just two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that municipalities have standing to sue lenders under the Fair Housing Act.

The regulator said that the Bank of Lake Mills, Freedom Stores and Military Credit Services violated the FTC Act.

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.

Despite merger-related charges, the Cleveland bank's first-quarter profit climbed 63% as the addition of a million new customers led to strong gains in both interest and fee income.

The New York bank has rapidly expanded its commercial real estate lending over the last several years, but now it is ready to slow down a bit and add more commercial and industrial loans to the mix.

Double-digit growth in earning assets more than offset higher expenses and a decline in the net interest margin.

Loan growth and increased fee income helped offset slightly higher expenses in the first quarter.

The hand-wringing over business lending has overshadowed the fact that consumer lending — particularly for regional banks — has become a strong and steady engine of growth.