Paragon Commercial Bank, Unity Bancorp and Nicolet Bankshares have found success by radically rethinking their strategies.

Profitability is under a lot of pressure for small institutions. But some are handling that pressure better than others, as our annual ranking of publicly traded banks and thrifts with less than $2 billion of assets shows.

What does a chief culture officer do? Though this is an uncommon title in banking, it is starting to pop up in more executive suites. Here’s why one bank sees the role as an important factor in its effort to excel.

Cutting-edge jobs — think chief innovation, strategy and data officers — are on the rise at banks and other lenders, and they are drawing free-thinking, tech-savvy candidates from inside and outside of financial services. American Banker asked several of them to recommend a book or other piece of writing that helped them tackle jobs that often were created from scratch.

U.S. Century Bank in Miami has been freed from a regulatory consent order that had restricted its activities for nearly five years.

The $189 million-asset credit union has asked approval from state and federal regulators to convert to a state-chartered mutual savings bank.

Hypur, a startup seeking to help banks serve businesses deemed high compliance risks (e.g. marijuana), has recruited a former Department of Justice lawyer to help build credibility. Its signature product: a payments platform to replace cash transactions.

CommonBond, an online lender that specializes in student loan refinancing, announced Monday that it has sold $150 million of bundled loans to investors.

The CFPB ordered New Jersey-based collection law firm Pressler and Pressler LLP and debt buyer New Century Financial Services Inc. to stop churning out collection lawsuits allegedly based on nonexistent or flimsy evidence.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered the New Jersey law firm Pressler and Pressler and a debt buyer to pay $2.5 million for allegedly filing "mass-produced" lawsuits against consumers based on nonexistent debts.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., reported a profit of $17.1 million in the first quarter, up 56% from a year earlier, as strong loan growth more than offset higher expenses and an uptick in problem loans. Its earnings per share climbed 50%, to 51 cents.

Bank of Hawaii in Honolulu said Monday that its first-quarter profit increased 18.3%, to $50.2 million, from a year earlier thanks to strong loan growth, improved credit quality and a hefty gain on sales of its Visa shares.

JPMorgan Chase has added fingerprint authentication for customers on Android devices.

Freddie Mac has revised downward its economic forecast for the remainder of 2016 following a tepid first quarter, but still remains upbeat about the housing market.

Lance Osborne is vying for two board seats at First Niles Financial in Ohio, but he isn’t pushing the thrift to sell itself. Rather, he wants management to pull money out of securities to make more loans.

The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act is reducing medical debt in collections for some low-income consumers, according to a study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

Over the past year, threats of steep downgrades have chilled secondary investor demand for federally guaranteed student loans, but two recent securitizations suggest that the market is beginning to thaw.

The Department of Education wants to make student loan payments easier through the launch of a single Web portal for federal student loan borrowers.

CIT Group named John C. Erickson president of its consumer bank and head of operations in California. Erickson, 54, will be based in Pasadena, California, and report to Chief Executive Officer Ellen Alemany.

A decline in expenses and a modest rise in lending income boosted first-quarter profit at Popular in San Juan, Puerto Rico.