Finance

The Boston company is forecasting larger earnings growth in the first year after closing its $3.5 billion deal than it projected in September. On the flip side, the acquisition will take longer to close than initially expected.

Home valuation professionals have had mixed feelings about automation out of concern that some forms could result in less accurate assessments.

The government has become more skeptical of mergers, but the Minneapolis company expressed confidence it can maintain its original timeline for the $8 billion acquisition. Separately, it announced substantial changes to its overdraft program that will, among other things, eliminate fees for nonsufficient funds.

The largest bank based in oil-rich Texas is building a framework for gauging the threat that climate change poses to its business and plans to disclose more information on the subject this summer. Meanwhile, its energy loan portfolio shrank 24% year over year.

Customers are ramping up borrowing just as interest rates are poised to rise. That combination “sets us up nicely for 2022,” says CEO Brian Moynihan.

The Rhode Island bank estimated that its revised overdraft practices will cost $40 million each year, but it noted that complaints to call centers are down 40% since the policy change.

The Mississippi bank’s addition of more than a dozen bankers last year helped drive a $250 million increase in new loans during the fourth quarter. To keep the momentum going, CEO John Hairston said he intends to hire aggressively in 2022.

Valuations for payment technology companies skyrocketed over the past year, pushed by a wave of public listings and record venture capital investments. Some potential acquirers are waiting for prices to cool.

The decision to drop the London interbank offered rate as a benchmark interest rate means that contracts for hundreds of trillions of dollars in financial assets need to be rewritten. U.S. regulators should allow existing agreements to be amended without the threat of massive litigation.

Fourth-quarter net interest income rose 11% from a year earlier to $11.4 billion at Bank of America, though its average loan balances edged up just 1% over the same period.