In this month's roundup of top tech news: Bank of America's data breach affects more than 57,000 consumers, banking as a service's looming reckoning, the downfall of Heartland Tri-State Bank and more.

Some legal experts say the U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared to favor national rules preempting state regulations in the Bank of America in a case regarding mortgage escrow accounts.

Amid an upturn in deposits, banks are searching for ways to put this new cash to work. The traditional option — boosting lending — is hard to do right now. That's left banks to park more money in high-quality securities that they believe will boost returns without heaping on too much credit risk.

Wells Fargo's Charlie Scharf and Morgan Stanley's James Gorman recorded the biggest gains among the CEOs whose compensation has been disclosed so far.

Customers with deferred compensation plans at the bank had personally identifiable information compromised through a third party, Infosys McCamish.

An increase in deposits in recent months is prompting banks to seek out high-quality fixed-income assets to deploy money, market watchers say. The return of Wall Street buyers has pushed spreads well below year-end levels, jump-starting CLO creation and ginning up demand for loans.

In this month's roundup of top banking news: Truist Financial announces plans to shutter 4% of its branch network, Fiserv pursues a special-purpose bank charter, Wells Fargo distributes a $1,000 bonus to lower-paid employees and more.

The institution is investing more in analytics as it faces pressure from rival banks and fintechs using automation to attract cost-conscious treasurers.

Fiserv's Money Network will officially start managing the state's prepaid debit card program for distributing unemployment and disability benefits to 850,000 beneficiaries. BofA had been trying to exit its contract for several years due to financial risks.

Plaintiffs' lawyers are targeting various companies in connection with a California law that ensures customers can air grievances publicly without the threat of retribution. BofA and U.S. Bank say the suits against them are meritless.

Financial institutions, led by the biggest U.S. banks and regional lenders, have dominated high-grade issuance, making up over 60% of the $149 billion that has priced so far this month.

Personal spending chugged along in the fourth quarter, thanks to the resilient job market. But loan charge-offs rose, and higher interest rates suppressed loan demand, executives say.

In 2023, the four giant banks raked in $253 billion in NII , about $80 billion higher than 2021's total. Now, most banks see rate cuts coming, all while they have to pay more on deposits or risk losing customer savings to higher-yielding options. 

The decline in profit came mainly from a $2.1 billion FDIC assessment and a $1.6 billion charge tied to the shift away from LIBOR.

After being undercapitalized for decades, some minority-led banks finally got large capital infusions in the wake of George Floyd's murder. But higher interest rates have made it harder for them to gather the deposits they need to boost lending substantially.

The megabank will report a hit to its earnings this Friday from what one analyst called an "accounting nuisance." The charge, which BofA will make up over time, is due to the bank's use of a Bloomberg-developed interest rate index that gained little traction.

Executives at America's largest banks are making rosier predictions about the financial health of U.S. households than they were a year ago, when their forecasts proved to be overly pessimistic.