The Spanish lender, aiming to become a leader among second-tier lenders in the U.S., expects to increase the number of bankers at its securities and advisory unit, its head of corporate and investment banking said.

Wells Fargo nabbed a spot among the top 10 advisors on mergers and acquisitions last year, a first for the firm as it ramps up its investment bank under Chief Executive Charlie Scharf.

With prodding from their regulators, U.S. banks made some progress on assessing climate risk, but did not move as quickly as activists wanted. At the same time, new federal support for clean energy provided opportunities for lenders.

This year saw far more abandoned deals than the previous one. The list includes State Street's abandoned purchase of Brown Brothers Harriman Investor Services and FVCBancorp's failed merger with Blue Ridge Bankshares.

Banks saw dealflow weaken in 2022, both for deals on which they advised and for their own M&A involving other banks and fintech companies.

At the start of 2022, banks sat atop a flood of deposits. But as the year progressed, they faced greater pressure to pay higher rates, and the trends that drove the rapid shift show no signs of abating.

Two long-awaited developments — the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's data access proposal and the Federal Reserve's faster payments network debut — are slated for next year. The combined effect on consumer banking might be more consequential than we now know.