VersaBank in London, Ontario, agreed nearly two years ago to buy a small Minnesota bank. The buyer's CEO says he remains hopeful approval will come soon.

Each spring during the rush of annual meetings, a handful of financial institutions take heat from shareholders who demand new strategies, management shakeups and, at times, even a sale of the company.

A lawsuit filed by the American Fintech Council and two other trade groups has implications for other states that also want to keep out high-cost consumer lenders.

The credit card giant says that it is "proactively meeting" with advocacy organizations to gather feedback that would help with the creation of a community benefits plan. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which has negotiated 21 such deals since 2016, opposes Capital One's proposed acquisition of Discover.

First National has agreed to buy Touchstone Bankshares. The combined company would have more than $500 million each of deposits and loans.

Lower commodity prices and decreases in government assistance are expected to push farm income lower this year and raise credit risk for banks.

The Justice Department and the CFPB are increasingly relying on emails among employees that contain discriminatory comments to strengthen their hand in cases against lenders.

Harborstone Credit Union in suburban Lakewood, Washington, plans to buy Savi Financial. That's seven deals in less than three months this year; the highest full-year total was 16 in 2022.

Financial services companies must incorporate digital, technical and cognitive empathy into the way they think about delivering their products in a digitized future.

At an American Bankers Association event, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who's up for reelection this year, said that he hopes the Durbin-Marshall credit card bill won't go anywhere and criticized the Federal Reserve's debit interchange proposal.

In the wake of multiple successes in 2023, the labor movement in the U.S. is continuing its efforts to expand. Recent successful union elections at Wells Fargo branches should be a wake-up call to the industry.

Investing in Main Street Act has passed the House three times with overwhelming majorities but has failed to gain traction in the Senate. Backers, including banks that invest in the funds, hope to flip the script with a third version.

Increased federalization of the U.S. banking industry would be a disservice to consumers and the economy. The court must act to protect the vibrancy of the dual-banking system.

Bank mergers and acquisitions have slowed in recent years amid recession fears and other economic uncertainties. But bank consolidation is a century-old trend that's expected to rev up again as early as this year due to higher costs, tougher regulation and fierce competition.

PNC announces a new head of corporate and institutional banking; Huntington hires JPMorgan exec to lead HR; former HSBC banker returns as the firm's new U.S. CEO; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.

Like many of its peers, the bank is evolving its virtual assistant to be more personalized and to incorporate a large language model, but it's not quite ready to turn on customer-facing generative AI.

Peapack-Gladstone's wealth unit is pursuing an ambitious de novo expansion in New York and perhaps elsewhere because M&A has become expensive as private equity money has inflated seller expectations.

The new team at Dime Community Bancshares intends to attract funding from an array of niche business segments, including medical billing, so-called death care services and hedge funds.