Commercial lending

Ten months after the Raleigh, North Carolina, company acquired a large chunk of Silicon Valley Bank, it says it is seeing good progress in keeping and winning back the latter's former customers. But the ongoing slowdown in private equity and venture capital activity will challenge the unit's growth.

The Oklahoma-based regional bank expects 6%-7% loan growth in the year ahead. Executives are also projecting that net interest income will start to improve after the metric hits a trough early this year.

The Salt Lake City bank says that it doesn't expect major losses, even though its problem loans grew at the end of 2023.

Several regional banks have projected minimal growth or even a decline in lending this year. But Connecticut-based Webster is bullish based on its pipeline of nonoffice commercial real estate, public finance and other credits, CEO John Ciulla says.

The Alabama bank's executives said commercial borrowers remain cautious amid high rates and economic uncertainty. During the fourth quarter, flat lending and higher deposit costs weighed down the company's net interest income.

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.

The Senate on Wednesday fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to override President Biden's veto in December of a Republican-led resolution to gut the small-business data collection rule using the Congressional Review Act.

The agency plans to restrict access to a system that provides borrower tax returns to mortgage lenders beginning June 30. Left out of the loop, small-business lenders say getting credit to borrowers will become more difficult as a result.

The legislation is the latest step in California's effort to crack down on high-cost small-business loans.

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.

The deadline for a $28 million deal between Bancorp 34 and CBOA Financial was pushed later into 2024 after Bancorp 34, the buyer, announced it would restate third-quarter results to reflect a significant loss tied to a worsening commercial real estate credit.

America First Credit Union wants to grow 7(a) lending, but its expansion prospects depend on hiring more experienced lenders. That's proved a common challenge for other institutions as the Small Business Administration program continues to grow in popularity.

Citigroup, Barclays and Morgan Stanley are just a few of the firms joining JPMorgan in what suddenly feels like a rush into direct lending.

Funding pressures moderated in recent months, but loan charge-offs climbed. With festering concerns about a vulnerable economy, the potential for elevated credits costs could loom large over the upcoming bank earnings season.

Many banks, especially smaller ones, will have to rethink how they lend to small businesses and automate manual processes.

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.

The Fed's Basel endgame draft rule would restrict access to capital and credit on Main Street.

Banks are perfectly willing to comply with a reasonable data collection standard. The problem is that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's final rule makes demands far in excess of what the law requires.

Commercial-property sales have come under pressure over the past year as borrowing rates soared and values plummeted. Sellers and borrowers have often struggled to agree on pricing, given uncertainty around where values sit today.

The Michigan City company, part of a growing list of banks announcing similar overhauls, aims to sell nearly $400 million of securities and reinvest the proceeds in higher-yielding loans.