OceanFirst Financial in New Jersey has agreed to pay $186 million to buy Partners Bancorp, which owns two banks that operate in the Washington suburbs and surrounding areas.

Digital upstarts like Square, Stripe and PayPal are invading community banks' turf by appealing to local merchants with a mix of electronic payments and lending. Small banks are fighting back by leaning into digital services while maintaining their personal touch.

Accrue Savings is introducing a savings account that is tied to specific retailers, allowing customers to gradually accumulate the amount they need to buy an item and earn cash rewards for making progress toward their goals.

The speed of money movement represents the future - success for those who deliver, challenges for those who don't

The small Pennsylvania regional signed up four cryptocurrency services companies as customers this week. CEO Sam Sidhu says the bank's new platform is helping it win business in this highly specialized market.

Hunt, who joined the CBA in 2009, has been a vocal critic of the federal student loan program and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s leadership structure. He plans to leave the trade group next summer.

Amid a spate of deals in 2021, community banks are actively recruiting from merging rivals that are focused on closing and integrating acquisitions.

The Cooperative Bank in Massachusetts is working with the tech startup Carefull to monitor accounts for signs that older clients are being swindled by scammers — including people close to them.

The Indiana-based online banking pioneer is purchasing First Century, a similarly tech-savvy company, for $80 million. The deal would diversify its revenue and improve its prepaid card offerings for small businesses.

The $47.6 million deal would help MidWestOne, which has been opening offices in other parts of the U.S., to expand closer to home in Iowa.

Mary Mack testified last week about the cultural problems she encountered after joining the bank's consumer unit in 2016. Recalling small group meetings she held with employees, she said: "People would stand up, and they were fearful."

FV Bank will let users hold crypto and traditional currencies in the same account. It says it can do that because it’s licensed in the U.S. territory as a bank and a digital-asset custodian.

Rising debt-to-income ratios were behind almost a third of refinance rejections among those 65 and older, according to an analysis from the Urban Institute.

Fifty-three percent of community bank executives who participated in a recent survey said they’d spurn a takeover offer by a credit union, even if it was the highest bid. The findings underscore the rivalry between the two sectors at a time of rising consolidation.

Steve Steinour, the Ohio bank’s CEO, said the slowdown in car manufacturing due to the global chip shortage will continue to stifle loan demand in the months ahead.

Some big tech firms “have sought to gain greater control over the flow of money in our economy,” Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra told senators. His comments came after the agency demanded information from large tech companies about their payment offerings.