The commercial-and-industrial loan space is overheated, higher rates could stifle mortgage refinancings, and subprime auto delinquencies are on the rise. Bankers could be fighting these fires and more in the new year.

Hope Bancorp in Los Angeles will close an additional nine branches next year as part of a second round of cost cutting.

The time banks have to investigate red-flagged credit payments has shrunk from several days to a few hours and fraudsters have already taken notice.

PHH is selling its remaining residential mortgage servicing portfolio to the real estate investment trust New Residential.

Cash machine transactions have held steady over the past three years, despite the rise of mobile and peer-to-peer payments, according to Andy Mattes, CEO of ATM manufacturer Diebold Nixdorf. "Consumers embrace all types of payment," Mattes says.

Dime Community Bancshares in Brooklyn, N.Y., will record a one-time charge after approving changes to its employee stock ownership plan.

Daryl Tressler will retire as president and CEO of MainSource Bank in Greensburg, Ind., at the end of this year.

Green Bancorp's aggressive plan to attack its credit quality troubles and do what few Texas banks once would have dreamed of – quit energy lending – make it a subject of debate and a community bank to watch closely in 2017.

The industry doesn't want to attack the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau directly, but its push to reform the agency's leadership structure is a backdoor strike at the CFPB's very existence.

The Department of Justice has agreed to a settlement with a pair of Cincinnati banks accused of redlining African-American neighborhoods in four cities in Ohio and Indiana.

The Minneapolis company's addition of Karen Wimbish, a former Wells Fargo executive, to oversee wealth management products is one of several moves by U.S. Bancorp as it builds up its investment-advisory services.

Chemical CEO David Ramaker has a wide range of options — diversify business lines, expand organically in several Midwestern states, pursue M&A or all of the above — following his recent acquisition of Talmer. But new challenges accompany Chemical's higher profile, too.

As the banking environment demands a different skill set for those operating leaner branch networks, institutions should look at tellers as a longer-term human resource with growth potential.

Consumers, particularly younger people, are placing an importance on being able to obtain a plastic card in a branch and use it right away.

Opus Bank completed a $509 million securitization of its multifamily loans through a Freddie Mac-sponsored "Q-deal" risk-transfer securitization, the company announced Tuesday.

Get out of the red six months from now. That is Fred Viaud's goal for Glen Rock Savings Bank in New Jersey, which on Tuesday said he would be promoted to president and CEO next week.

It's unclear how the new political environment will affect the platform's viability or how investors will view the securities issued on it. The next year could determine the project's success and role reshaping the secondary mortgage market.

Banks have used biometrics for about a decade, but there are a number of hurdles that banks, device makers and customers need to overcome before passwords are history.

The Obama administration has been actively seeking loan payments from thousands of former students eligible for a debt-forgiveness program.

The new year will bring risk in marketplace lending, but progress will be made in micropayments platforms and regulators embracing innovators.