Discover leaned heavily on rewards to drive new card acquisitions and sales growth in the fourth quarter, but suffered a double whammy of rising reward costs and higher charge-offs, causing it to miss analyst earnings expectations.

Delinquencies, which are on the rise across financial services, clouded an otherwise solid quarter for Discover Financial Services.

The Pennsylvania company said it expects the digital bank to become profitable by the end of this year.

An improved net interest margin helped offset a slight decrease in fee income at the Wisconsin company.

With SBA lending at a standstill, many small businesses can't access the capital they need to create and retain jobs, Stephen Steinour says.

The Dallas company boosted its loan-loss provision in the fourth quarter to cover deteriorating leveraged loans, causing it to miss profit estimates.

The surge in new lending at the Pasadena, Calif., company offset rising deposit costs and sluggish fee-income growth.

The New York company will add $504 million of asset-based and equipment finance loans as part of the acquisition.

The Boston company reported a quarterly profit despite special charges, mortgage headwinds and lost SBA revenue tied to the partial government shutdown.

The Florida bank sold $344 million of taxi-medallion and other loans in the fourth quarter, saying it was positioning itself for the future.

Double-digit gains in net interest income more than offset sluggish growth in fee income at the Salt Lake City company.

The Florida company's earnings increased after it completed a big acquisition and produced strong year-over-year loan production.

The McLean, Va., company also reported a decline in charge-offs on credit card loans.

CEO Greg Carmichael says the Cincinnati bank will hire bankers in Denver, Dallas and Houston as part of a broader expansion into fast-growing markets that are home to lots of midsize firms. It is also interested in buying more fee-based businesses.

The Virginia company cautioned that it expects lending to slow down this year.

The low-cost deposits it gained in its purchase of 52 Wells Fargo branches, combined with higher interest rates, lifted Flagstar's net interest margin.

Many government employees are turning to alternative lenders to bridge the gap between paychecks; the average pay at the biggest U.S. banks rose by just 3% last year, well below the CEO rate.

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The Tennessee company is pleased with loan growth. It has also been able to reduce its dependence on brokered deposits as it brings in new customers following its purchase of Capital Bank.

Strong demand for commercial loans helped offset weaker growth in consumer lending and a decline in fee income.