Laura Alix

Leaders at the 85 institutions that made the eighth annual ranking have found ways to navigate crises (there have been plenty this year) while also bolstering employee morale.

Spence’s promotion to president could signal that the Cincinnati banking company is grooming him as a potential successor to Chairman and CEO Greg Carmichael.

The Cincinnati company, one of just a handful of lenders to reduce its cushion against bad credits in the third quarter, was grilled by analysts who suggested it was being too optimistic about the long-term effects of the pandemic recession.

Banks have managed to steer around trouble spots in energy, hotel and mall-related credits. But fears of further deterioration, an eviction wave or more job losses are keeping lenders circumspect.

Citigroup is now the third, and largest, U.S. financial institution to offer the Mastercard True Name feature, which lets customers use their preferred name, rather than their legal name, on credit and debit cards. The cards are targeted specifically for transgender and nonbinary people, who often face outsized financial hardship.

Citigroup is now the third, and largest, U.S. financial institution to offer the Mastercard True Name feature, which lets customers use their preferred name, rather than their legal name, on credit and debit cards. The cards are targeted specifically for transgender and nonbinary people, who often face outsized financial hardship.

Strong mortgage and capital markets activity helped offset credit costs and one-time items in the third quarter at Citizens Financial Group. In a period of low rates, CEO Bruce Van Saun says he’d like to buy more fee-generating businesses.

The Minneapolis company says the majority of branches earmarked for closing have already been shuttered for months due to the pandemic. Some of the savings will be plowed back into digital expansion.

Even more so than activist investors, customers and a new generation of employees are driving banks to back environmental, social and governance reforms, executives said during a Women in Banking roundtable hosted by American Banker.

The fees have helped banks recoup costs of free or low-cost checking accounts for decades, but they can penalize low-income customers and drive them away from banking. Is there a better way?

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.