Commercial lending

Lending Club rebounded to profitability in the third quarter as revenue growth at the nation's largest marketplace lender outpaced an increase in operating expenses.

Antonio Weiss, a counselor to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, called Thursday for greater transparency in the pricing of online small-business loans.

Wells Fargo has eliminated foreign transaction fees for transactions made by small businesses made outside the U.S.

"At some point there will probably be a government agency telling us to do this. So why not start now?" says MultiFunding CEO Ami Kassar.

Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., is building an online borrowing experience for its small-business clients.

The ease of comparing rates online will make it hard for industry pioneers like Lending Club and OnDeck to keep generating high-margin loans, some observers believe.

State Bank Financial in Atlanta has acquired Patriot Capital, a provider of equipment financing to gas stations and commercial petroleum users.

Citizens Financial Group in Providence, R.I., managed to build up lending and hold its margins relatively steady last quarter, leading to a healthy gain in profits.

Capital One Financial in McLean, Va., rode growth in its flagship U.S. credit card business to stronger third-quarter earnings.

Skills Fund, which has raised $11.5 million in seed capital, is one of several lenders targeting students hoping to boost their salaries by quickly learning how to write computer code.

OnDeck Capital, Lending Club, Funding Circle and Kabbage in the last week have all announced moves designed to boost their loan volumes.

Loan-loss provisions are trending up, partly due to an increase in overall lending but also because lenders are concerned about future losses on loans tied to the energy and manufacturing sectors.

Springleaf's proposed acquisition of Citi's OneMain Holdings is being delayed by the Justice Department, which appears focused on preserving competition at the local level — even as a raft of new subprime installment lenders are popping up on the Web.

Community banks, frustrated that online and email marketing often gets overlooked, are trying to get people to engage with local businesses in hopes of landing more clients.

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Regional banks did a much better job of expanding revenue than their megabank counterparts in the third quarter, but they had to spend more to do so and risk angering investors in a tight-margin environment.

KeyCorp in Cleveland posted higher third-quarter profits as revenue soared on growth in fee income from its investment banking business.

Bank of America's long effort to become a slimmer, more profitable retail bank could be starting to pay off. In a tough quarter for revenue growth, its consumer banking division gained traction thanks to branch consolidation, investments in mobile banking and other factors.

The pioneering online lender Kabbage has raised $135 million in new equity financing, with three large multinational banks among the lead investors, the company announced Wednesday.

Results from the largest U.S. bank, and the first major player to report on its latest quarter, showed widespread revenue strains and only added to questions about the industry's growth prospects in the near future.