Banks branches continue to shutter through October; First Carolina onboards fintech partner BM Technologies; ICBA announces its 2024 accelerator companies; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.

The Georgia-based bank says it's expanding its relationship with GreenSky, a home improvement lender that Goldman Sachs bought in 2022 but put up for sale a year later. The deal will bring a one-time revenue boost and a recurring fee income stream.

The bank in Richmond, Virginia, failed to properly disclose its overdraft practices to roughly 8,500 consumers who enrolled by phone or in branches from 2017 to 2020, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The company admitted no wrongdoing.

Frustrated by its inability to overcome loan-servicing mistakes that triggered three separate regulatory consent orders, Discover Financial Services elected to sell its student loan business. "When we looked at it, we have perennial issues in our ability to service that portfolio," a top executive said.

Equity, based in Wichita, Kansas, has agreed to buy the parent company of the Bank of Kirksville. The combined company would have $5.4 billion of assets and 74 branches, including 23 in Missouri.

Too few lenders are underwriting unsecured consumer debt, which could help borrowers pay down credit card balances with little risk to lenders.

The nation's largest bank has already completed many of the branch closings that can boost its earnings, leaving it with "less and less accretive opportunities to consolidate," according to a top executive.

The Pennsylvania bank has agreed to sell its Exchange Underwriters subsidiary to World Insurance Associates for $30.5 million, saying that the deal will help pad its capital and liquidity.

The two companies announced the deal more than a year ago and had anticipated closing it in the first half of 2023. But advocacy groups have urged regulators to withhold approval, arguing that it will hurt consumers.

A small bank stock index posted its biggest gain of the year in early November before that progress faded. What will it take for investors to sustain confidence in the sector?