The Kansas City, Mo., company also benefited from higher yields on its loans and flat funding costs.

In addition to his highly publicized comments on trade and other political issues, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase used his annual letter to underscore the importance of job training for low-wage workers and call attention to an FDIC proposal that encourages banks to hire workers who have been convicted of minor crimes.

Efforts by financial institutions to track "beneficial ownership" data in advance of a regulatory deadline next month is complicated by the challenge of getting customers to cough up the information.

U.S. banks lag the technology, telecommunications and energy sectors in what they pay employees, according to new data. The gap suggests that the industry may not be the acting aggressively enough to remake itself for the digital age.

Deutsche Bank is said to be conducting a fresh review of its trading businesses, an overhaul that CEO John Cryan is pursuing to help restore profitability amid reports that the bank is seeking to replace him.

The holding company for Union Bank — itself a unit of the Japanese giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group — is on a mission to double its size and become one of the nation's 10 largest banks. Under Steve Cummings, its first-ever American CEO, MUFG Americas has expanded middle-market lending and amassed $3 billion of consumer deposits through its new online bank. Is a splashy acquisition next?

Extending this functionality into corporate cards has the potential to make the commercial payments process more seamless and secure, writes Russell Bennett, chief technology officer at Fraedom.