Georgia

The SEC is investigating the bank for selling clients mutual funds that charge marketing fees when other, cheaper funds were available. SunTrust expects an enforcement action.

Malicious software may have been installed on the restaurant’s payment card systems in October.

The $274 million credit union hired the former banker with 30 years of financial services experience after a national search to fill the top spot.

Quarterly profit fell at SunTrust Banks in Atlanta as noninterest expense rose 8.4% and its loan-loss provision increased.

The commercial-and-industrial loan space is overheated, higher rates could stifle mortgage refinancings, and subprime auto delinquencies are on the rise. Bankers could be fighting these fires and more in the new year.

United Community Banks in Blairsville, Ga., is searching for a new financial chief officer.

Ameris Bancorp in Moultrie, Ga., has entered into a consent order with regulators tied to the Bank Secrecy Act.

Just weeks after it shook up its executive ranks and suspended efforts to pursue new customers, the New York-based business lender confirmed Friday that it is eliminating dozens of jobs.

Pacific Metro Bank would cater to Chinese-Americans around Atlanta. The application process is worth watching since the group is seeking the first Georgia charter in seven years and would be based in a market where more than 90 banks have failed since 2007.

Colony Bankcorp in Fitzgerald, Ga., has bought back more of its former Troubled Asset Relief Program shares held by private investors.

Citizens Financial Group in Providence, R.I., hired a longtime executive at SunTrust Banks in Atlanta to lead its Southeast operations.

The core-tech vendor Fiserv has agreed to buy Online Banking Solutions in Atlanta.

SmartFinancial in Knoxville, Tenn., has agreed to buy a branch in Tennessee from a division of Atlantic Capital Bank in Atlanta.

Some banks are set to get a fourth-quarter earnings boost from their MSR portfolios, thanks to a sudden spike in yields on Treasury bonds. Add to that the prospect of further rate hikes and the potential dismantling of Basel III, and more banks could be encouraged to re-enter the servicing business.

SouthCrest Financial Group in Woodstock, Ga., has agreed to sell its only Alabama branches to Guardian Credit Union in Montgomery, Ala.

SunTrust Banks in Atlanta has agreed to open almost 200 new locations of Operation Hope's financial-counseling centers inside its branches by 2020.

Can banks outdo online lending startups in head-to-head competition? We're about to find out. Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Quicken have all entered the digital lending business, putting early entrants on the defensive.

They are called HENRYs — high earners, not rich yet — and they have the potential to generate lucrative wealth-management and other fees for banks if they could just dial back their spending.

Higher mortgage banking revenue and commercial real estate lending offset merger costs at United Community Banks in Blairsville, Ga., leading to an improvement in third-quarter profit.

Amid shrinking yields, rising delinquencies and repeated warnings from regulators about frothy market conditions, several banks said on earnings calls that they plan to scale back or hold the line on indirect auto lending.