Having solid relationships with those who cover the banking industry can lend credibility to management teams, especially when times are tough.

U.S. fintechs attracted $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter as institutions sought an AI edge.

Popular will acquire $1.5 billion in auto loans amid questions about the potential for loan losses following Hurricane Maria. The deal also coincides with Wells Fargo's need to stay inside a growth cap imposed by regulators.

Achieva Credit Union, which recently formed a business to advise other acquisition-minded credit unions, has agreed to buy Preferred Community Bank.

The company agreed to buy Bank of River Oaks for $85 million in cash.

The two Lima, Ohio-based CUs will combine to create a $44 million-asset institution.

The Justice Department required the sales before signing off on MainSource's pending sale to First Financial in Cincinnati.

People's Bank of Commerce in southern Oregon decided it had to diversify to survive, so when a director heard a factoring firm he co-founded was up for sale, the bank seized the moment. Now it has other deals in mind.

The California company has agreed to buy Grandpoint Capital, a business bank in Los Angeles, for $641 million.

Federal credit union regulators approved the merger late last year, and the two institutions are targeting a final closing date of June 11, 2018.

In a move to support its business-to-business payments platform, Visa has agreed to acquire software provider Fraedom.

Analysts are wondering what the big Japanese technology fund plans to do with its proposed stake in Swiss Re; the insurer takes a onetime $6.7 billion loss due to tax reform.

Readers react to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau pulling back from investigating the Equifax breach, opine on the Federal Reserve's tough enforcement against Wells Fargo, weigh in on gender pay issues and more.

Additional consolidation would not strengthen the industry, but would instead leave consumers with less choice and reduced access to financial services.

S&P lowers the bank’s rating to A-minus following Federal Reserve sanctions on growth; 13 are arrested after alleging defrauding banks of $530 million over seven years.

Warburg Pincus has agreed to buy a majority stake in a mortgage and consumer loan origination and servicing platform owned by Fiserv.

Patriot National in Connecticut planned to build a regional small-business lending operation on its own — until it had a chance to buy a national platform.

Goldman Sachs is in discussions to acquire the personal finance startup Clarity Money, with plans to fold it into its Marcus online lender, according to people familiar with the matter.

Payments processor Shift4 Payments has acquired three point of sale companies that it will integrate to strengthen its presence in the hospitality POS market.

Patriot National in Connecticut would become the latest community bank to ramp up small-business lending with its $81 million deal to acquire Hana Financial's much larger SBA lending unit.