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Mercantile's pending acquisition of Eastern Michigan is approved by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago; the National Community Reinvestment Coalition and Rise Economy announce a $2.5 billion addendum to Columbia Bank's community benefits agreement following its acquisition of Pacific Premier Bank; the Federal Reserve Board and CFPB raise the thresholds for certain credit and lease transactions; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Here are the 10 stories our readers paid the most attention to in a year of political, economic and technological change.

The Senate confirmed Travis Hill as the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as part of a slate of nominations that were approved late Thursday. Hill has been serving as acting FDIC chair since January.

The Federal Reserve Board voted 6-1 on Friday to seek public comment on a proposed "skinny" master account.

Once artificial intelligence has eliminated all the human-driven volatility from financial markets, will there even be a reason to trade anymore?

Loni Winkler is the leader of the tax practice in the Great Lakes region at UHY and has over 20 years of experience in public accounting. She provides tax and business consulting services to privately held businesses and has extensive experience in individual, corporate and flow-through entity federal and multi-state taxations. She assists business owners, CFOs and controllers in developing and implementing innovative business strategies to minimize risk, maximize profits, preserve wealth, and reduce taxes.

Irina Olifer is a senior assurance professional with multiple audit and compliance credentials. 

Jim Capparelli, CPA, is a wealth and tax strategist for JCJ Wealth and Tax Advisory LLC, DBA of Arrowroot Family Office, LLC. He helps families, professionals and business owners integrate strategy, reduce complexity and align their wealth with long-term purpose.

The Dallas bank turned down another offer because it thought it could get a higher price from Fifth Third, and also could ink an agreement faster, according to Comerica's latest regulatory filing.

The payment fintech is marketing technology that lets merchants sell through AI agents; Google adds a credit card for India's national real-time payment rail. That and more in American Banker's global payments and fintech roundup.