Polo Rocha is a Washington D.C.-based reporter who covers consumer finance and national banking trends. He previously covered the Federal Reserve at S&P Global Market Intelligence and state politics at WisPolitics.com. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has a master's in finance degree from Johns Hopkins University.
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The Wall Street giant did a lot of backtracking last year, abandoning its plans to become a bank for everyone. Now it's refocusing on growing its tried-and-true businesses of dealmaking and asset management.
January 16 -
The San Francisco-based bank warned for months that charge-offs were likely to start rising as some office-related loans went bad. It began to happen in the fourth quarter, which could be an omen for regional banks that have larger concentrations in the office sector.
January 12 -
The megabank will report a hit to its earnings this Friday from what one analyst called an "accounting nuisance." The charge, which BofA will make up over time, is due to the bank's use of a Bloomberg-developed interest rate index that gained little traction.
January 8 -
As the CEO of First Union Bank, Crutchfield struck more than 80 deals, riding the consolidation wave of the 1980s and 1990s. When he retired, First Union was the sixth largest bank in the country.
January 5 -
One of the smallest banks in the country hasn't consistently made a profit since 2007 and has been the subject of enforcement actions. The FDIC's public rebuke against it indicates a last-ditch effort to figure out a less messy solution than receivership.
January 4 -
Bank investors hope they can party like it's 1995, when the U.S. economy stayed healthy even after aggressive Federal Reserve rate hikes. But a few analysts are a bit more cautious over whether banks' loan books will hold up as well this time.
January 2 -
Bank investor Kenneth Lehman and investment firm Castle Creek are providing the funds to the Virginia-based bank, whose fintech friendly strategy has gotten it in trouble with regulators. The bank's stock has sunk 70% this year.
December 22 -
Corporations and trial lawyers have long fought over whether consumers should be forced into arbitration to resolve their complaints. Now there's a new wrinkle: It's becoming harder for aggrieved customers to even get to arbitration.
December 21 -
The vote by workers in a New Mexico branch is the first union victory at a megabank in decades, though unionization efforts at another Wells branch took a step back.
December 21 -
Remote work trends and high interest rates have substantially reduced the values of U.S. office buildings. A new academic paper estimates the extent of the deterioration, suggesting that there is perhaps more stress ahead for banks than is widely anticipated.
December 18
