Commercial Banking News, Strategy & Risk Analysis
American Banker's commercial banking coverage explores how banks serve middle-market and corporate clients, focusing on issues such as interest-rate volatility, regulatory pressure, and intensifying competition for deposits and credit relationships. This section focuses on balance-sheet strategy, commercial lending, treasury and cash management, risk governance, and the technologies reshaping relationship banking.
Learn how institutions are recalibrating growth expectations, managing credit exposure, and using payments and treasury capabilities to deepen client relationships while preserving profitability.
Commercial banking is under structural pressure from higher funding costs, uneven loan demand, and increased supervisory scrutiny. Banks are being forced to prioritize relationship depth, disciplined credit selection, and non-interest income generation rather than balance-sheet expansion alone.
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Lenders pulled back on commercial real estate loans in 2023, as high interest rates put pressure on property values. They're now returning to the sector, and the renewed competition is prompting a pricing war.
May 21
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Bill Demchak of PNC Financial Services Group got a $10 million raise in 2025. It was the largest pay bump, on a dollar basis, among a group of more than 50 bank CEOs.
May 21
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BOK Financial and Atlantic Union Bankshares are among the lenders with very low rates of bad loans. They're telling investors it won't last forever.
May 21
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Support for Citi's annual say-on-pay resolution fell steeply, with about 60% of shareholders voting in favor of the bank's 2025 executive-compensation program. The decline is likely related to a one-time equity award to CEO Jane Fraser and concerns about how the bank determines incentive pay.
May 20
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Flagstar Bank extended Joseph Otting's employment contract by one year and granted him new stock awards. Simultaneously, the bank promoted two executives to serve as co-presidents, in a move that could be a hint at CEO succession plans.
May 19
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The $110 million settlement, which was mapped out last fall, requires Wells Fargo to establish a $100 million fund to provide downpayment and closing-cost assistance to eligible borrowers who live in or plan to buy a home in certain low- and moderate-income census tracts.
May 18
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The Mississippi lender's pending acquisition of OFB Bancshares, the parent company of One Florida Bank, offers an entry point into the fast-growing Orlando market.
May 15
