Commercial lending

Banks across Europe and the U.S. committed to lend tens of billions of dollars for leveraged buyouts and acquisitions. Now they need to find buyers for the debt, and demand is relatively weak.

Texas is seeking information from more than a dozen major finance firms on whether their operations discriminate against the fossil-fuel industry. 

The $1.38 trillion U.S. leveraged loan market is nearing an innovation that could finally shift back-office operations to a centralized system and away from investors having to manually track their positions — a process that can still include the occasional fax.

Prosecutors say Rafael Martinez and his company, MBE Capital, used false information to reap more than $71 million in fees from loans made under the Paycheck Protection Program.

Demand for green bonds and other financing tied to climate and environmental projects is growing and should expand further, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said.

The industry is contending with trading volatility, the economic effects of soaring energy prices and the risk of prolonged high inflation following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. Citigroup, TD and Comerica are among the banks that have commented on how their businesses may be affected.

Toronto-Dominion Bank set targets for reducing the emissions intensity of lending to certain energy industries, charting a clearer path for a plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 while still boosting its loan book in those sectors.

Bank of Montreal laid out a plan to sharply reduce emissions connected to loans to the energy and power-generation sectors by 2030 as its aims for a longer-term goal of being net zero.

On Dec. 31, 2021. Dollars in thousands.

Toronto-Dominion Bank, which earlier this week announced a $13.4 billion acquisition to expand in the U.S., got a lift from loan growth at home.

Most loans to mortuaries are backed by the Small Business Administration, so they are capped at $5 million. The Delaware lender is teaming with an industry insurer to offer much larger loans to funeral home owners seeking to acquire rivals or refinance operations.

Alternative lenders should be held to the same standards as banks under the Community Reinvestment Act and other laws, M&T CEO René Jones argued in a letter to shareholders.

Bank of Nova Scotia and Bank of Montreal got an earnings boost with commercial clients ramping up their borrowing as economies emerged further from the pandemic.

On Dec. 31, 2021. Dollars in thousands.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized two self-proclaimed separatist republics in eastern Ukraine, lenders such as SocGen, UniCredit and Raiffeisen look increasingly exposed to the knock-on effects of financial sanctions by Western governments.

Last year, just 30% of small-business owners received the total funding they were seeking, down from 51% just two years earlier, according to a new Federal Reserve survey. The findings suggest that two years into the pandemic, banks are having a difficult time assessing risk.

Almost 350,000 loans made to small businesses in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic haven’t been forgiven, according to a Bloomberg News analysis of Paycheck Protection Program data, and most of them are for less than $25,000. 

The agreement to acquire Vantage Financial in Minnesota comes less than a year after Peoples Bank purchased North Star Leasing in Vermont.

On Sep. 30, 2021. Dollars in thousands.

On Sep. 30, 2021. Dollars in thousands.