Regional banks like BB&T, Huntington Bancshares and Citizens Financial are growing through acquisition and targeted business-line initiatives, but they are having to contain spending simultaneously.

North Carolina's second-biggest community bank agreed to sell itself at a rich premium, signaling that the state has become an attractive market for acquirers. Adding an out-of-state bank could also create opportunities for *locals* to poach business.

One of the nation’s biggest banks and the so-called “everything store” have joined forces to extend loan discounts to students.

Strong commercial loan growth drove an 8% year-over-year increase in Private Bancorp's second-quarter profit.

People's United Financial in Bridgeport, Conn., has agreed to buy a New York wealth-management firm.

The Brexit vote last month gave a small boost to second-quarter profit at Bank of New York Mellon, but the low interest rate environment continued to bedevil the custody bank in many segments of its business.

Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, reported a second-quarter profit of $175 million, off 11% from the same period in 2015. Part of the reason for the drop was a $21 million charge related to its pending acquisition of FirstMerit in Akron.

F.N.B. Corp. in Pittsburgh is making a big play to enter North Carolina.

BB&T in Winston-Salem, N.C., reported higher quarterly profit that reflected loan growth and its recent acquisitions.

The $24.4 billion-asset company reported a $50 million profit in the second quarter, up 2% from the first quarter.

BancorpSouth in Tupelo, Miss., reported weaker quarterly profit after boosting its loan-loss provision and recording lower fee income.

Arbor Bancorp in Ann Arbor, Mich., has agreed to buy Birmingham Bloomfield Bancshares in Michigan.

American Express Co., the biggest U.S credit-card issuer by purchases, said second-quarter profit rose 37 percent as customers increased spending and the company booked a $1 billion gain from the sale of its Costco Wholesale Corp. portfolio.

BankUnited in Miami Lakes, Fla., on Wednesday reported higher quarterly profits, driven in part by an uptick in fee income from equipment-lease financing.

Establishing a set of standards of practice for chief risk officers and others would help benchmark the quality control for managing risk in the financial services industry.

Panic around energy lending has subsided somewhat as oil prices have climbed and banks have reduced their overall exposure. But expect more trouble ahead if prices level off.

The investment banking firm's GS Bank unit has added a large number of consumer deposits since spring, but its success hasn't been cheap.

Profit improved at both BBCN Bancorp and Wilshire Bancorp in the second quarter, about two weeks ahead of the closing date for the Los Angeles companies' merger.

The three custody banks had been projected to post weak second-quarter results because of a lull in foreign exchange trading. Then Brexit happened, and everything changed.

H. Rodgin Cohen has just about seen it all over his decades of work advising bankers. The well-known lawyer looks at existing issues for banks while reflecting on past mergers that paid off for their participants.