Whether addressing a large audience or interacting with individual employees, the most effective communicators are those who leave their audience feeling a little smarter for having listened to them.

In a forum Tuesday, Senate Democrats railed against President Trump and Elon Musk's efforts to shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as anti-consumer and illegal.

The Illinois company plans to acquire neighboring Bancorp Financial in a cash-and-stock transaction that would form the second largest community bank in the Chicago area.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said while bank earnings rose in Q4 2024, smaller banks weren't as fortunate amid realized losses on securities sales.

Brian Moynihan, chairman and CEO of Bank of America, said the future of banking lies in tech.

Brian Moynihan argued Tuesday that the president's allegations of politically motivated debanking stem from the problem of overregulation.

The Champaign, Illinois-based bank said Jeffrey Jones stepped down from his post days before it could close its acquisition of CrossFirst Bankshares. Jones' exit was not deal related, Busey said.

The ABA, BPI and SIFMA are among the groups asking Sacks to make it easier for banks to engage in crypto-related activity.

Community Bankshares has launched a unit that is originating Small Business Administration 7(a) loans for itself and aims to service them for other small lenders around the country.

The Connecticut bank expects to report a $9.5 million net loss for the fourth quarter, but it said it's made headway in its efforts to cultivate investors and bolster its capital levels.

FNB Corp marked the grand opening of its new downtown Pittsburgh headquarters this week. The bank owns and occupies the majority of the 26-story tower in the city's Hill District, a new addition to the city's skyline and one of the few new towers built in the city's business district in recent years. And long-time bank executive Robert Goldstein has died at 84.

The New York-based institution tapped the former Republic First CEO to help oversee its transformation from a predominantly multifamily lender into business bank.

Too often, banks confronting a problem with their anti-money-laundering compliance opt for quick fixes that fail to address the root of the problem. Building a good corporate risk culture takes time and investment.

The top five banks in this list closed a net total of 518 branches in 2024.

Deal advisors said the Trump administration's tariff threats and the specter of inflation have given some bankers reason to pause on acquisition plans. Momentum could still mount, but uncertainty in Washington is a detriment early in the new year.

The three-year-old Newport Beach-based institution, which secured $500 million in investor pledges to acquire peers, says more dealmaking may be in the works.

An overhaul of the bank regulatory system is past due, but the urge to start tearing up the rule book must be resisted in favor of precision and the thoughtful application of some basic principles.

Small lenders produced net interest margin expansion in the fourth quarter, thanks in large part to interest rate cuts in the second half of 2024. Festering inflation, however, threatens to lead to rate increases that could stall their momentum.

The San Francisco-based bank announced that another consent order with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has been terminated. The six-year-old order was related to the bank's risk compliance management and certain loan practices.

The biggest decline was a 9.9% drop in deposits quarter-on-quarter as of Dec. 31.