Finance

The San Antonio bank is preparing to offer all customers — not just those with direct deposit — a break on overdraft charges. But CEO Phillip Green explained in an interview why he’s not prepared to step away from the fees altogether.

First Citizens BancShares said its $2.2 billion acquisition of CIT Group, closed in the first quarter after months of regulatory delays, is finally coming together.

The recovery for airline and related spending has been robust — and thus far immune to geopolitical and inflationary pressures — according to the card network, following similar reports from Visa and American Express.

In a recent survey, just over half of community bankers expressed concern that the central bank will harm the U.S. economy by raising rates too fast in its quest to contain inflation.

Fewer new customers signed up during the first quarter as e-commerce sales momentum slowed and inflation rose, forcing the company to reduce its overall growth expectations for the year.

The country was a large part of the card brand's cross-border digital business, though expansion in other markets and new services will help offset the negative impact, according to CEO Alfred Kelly.

The combination of higher inflation and higher rates has caught up with bank stocks, now on course for their their worst monthly performance in more than two years.

More than two years into the pandemic, banks hit several turning points during the first quarter. On the positive side, commercial loan growth finally materialized, but there were also snags, particularly in fee income.

The Treasury’s latest tax collection may preview how the shrinking of the Federal Reserve’s $9 trillion balance sheet, or quantitative tightening, will unfold for the markets and global liquidity.

Technology moves at a breakneck pace that threatens to leave flat-footed organizations in the dust. But industry leaders are leveraging the bleeding edge to get ahead of the pack and never look back. 

Executives at the Alabama bank anticipated that some corporate deposits would start to leave during the first quarter as interest rates rose. Instead, deposits grew to a record $138.7 billion.

The Wisconsin company is the latest bank to plan cutbacks in the fees. Its fee income is projected to fall by about 2% from its level last quarter.

A sell-off of technology stocks this year has helped dissuade firms from going public. But Silicon Valley Bank’s parent company, which counts many tech firms among its clients, says the pullback hasn’t spread to smaller startups and the venture-capital funds that finance them.

Powered by a surge of bookings in March, travel and entertainment card spending at American Express rose 121% in the first quarter. The company also added 3 million accounts.

The Columbus, Ohio, bank, which already makes more loans than any other lender in the Small Business Administration's flagship program, is testing a plan to offer them outside of its Midwestern footprint.

Last year, the Cleveland bank stopped providing cards to government benefit recipients in the Prairie State. During the first quarter, it reported a 23.8% decline in noninterest income from cards and payment services.

The Georgia bank warns that the one-two punch of rising inflation and supply-chain issues on its smaller commercial customers makes that asset class “something we would watch” for potential losses.

Earnings and total loans fell in the first quarter at M&T, but the Buffalo, New York, bank offered a rosier forecast for the rest of 2022. The outlook anticipates a shot in the arm from the recent acquisition of People's United Financial.

The Dallas bank reported an increase in energy loans for the first time in nearly three years, but executives don’t expect fossil-fuel lending to rebound to its previous highs.

Bruce Van Saun, the Rhode Island bank’s CEO, previewed a branch-light strategy in new markets like South Florida and Washington, D.C. Citizens recently closed acquisitions of Investors Bancorp and much of HSBC’s U.S. retail banking business.