Gateway Mortgage Group’s dream of being a national, diversified financial services player will hinge on its effort to turn a community bank into an online-only platform.

The business, which has $827 billion in assets under administration, includes operations in the U.S., the Philippines and India, according to the buyer, Principal Financial Group.

The combined organization, representing nearly 500 member credit unions, is expected to launch early next year.

The moves are part of an ongoing effort by the Seattle bank to largely exit mortgage lending.

A plan to join Deer Valley and Canyon State credit unions still needs approval from regulators and members of both institutions.

The companies had planned to make Chemical CEO David Provost the new leader before October's market gyrations led them to break off talks. When they revisited the deal, several things changed — including Provost's role.

Mergers and acquisitions in the payments segment rose 16 percent in 2018, fueled in part by PayPal closing two large deals.

The two banks will each give $15 million to the Foundation for the Carolinas, which supports affordable housing development in Mecklenburg County.

The bank is pledging to lend another $2 billion in a market where it has invested $3.6 billion in various community development initiatives since 2016. Most of the new funds will be used to make loans to small businesses that operate in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.

The North Carolina company was hit with a tax penalty tied to its purchase of Chattahoochee Bank of Georgia.

Visa’s proposal to buy Earthport — which already survived a brief bidding war with Mastercard — is getting a closer look by the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog group.

Alliance Bank Central Texas may have found a way around National Credit Union Administration regulations that make it difficult for banks to buy credit unions.

The Montana company agreed to buy Heritage Bancorp for $241 million.

Publicly traded banks will have to book expected losses on loans starting next year; the jump in mortgage refinancings could be a mixed bag for banks.

National Credit Union Administration regulations make it difficult for banks to buy credit unions, but one Texas bank may have found a partial way around that.

The first quarter proved sluggish for overall merger activity. Here are notable deals announced in March.

The Delray Beach-based credit union entered into the deal as part of a broader expansion push along Florida's Treasure Coast.

FIS’s $43 billion agreement to acquire Worldpay and Fiserv’s $22 billion deal to buy First Data are largely closing the gaps between financial technology and merchant acquiring. But these mergers are only the first of many steps.

The Illinois company will pay about $10 million, and redeem $23.5 million in trust-preferred stock, as part of the deal.

The FIS-Worldpay and Fiserv-First Data combos do provide notable scale, but the even-larger companies still won't produce the same pace of growth that younger nimble fintechs enjoy, says Eric Grover, a principal at Intrepid Ventures.