BB&T

House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters said the merger is a direct result of a regulatory relief bill that was signed into law in May.

SunTrust’s merger with BB&T is the largest bank deal since the financial crisis, and mortgages will play a critical role in the execution of this transaction.

The stars aligned for the two longtime rivals to join forces, and some observers speculate that other regional banks will need to strike similar partnerships if they hope to remain competitive. But others say such deals are rare because they're hard to pull off.

The merged bank would set up an innovation and technology center in Charlotte as part of its bid to compete better against the largest institutions and fintech startups.

The combined bank will move into a more demanding supervisory class under the Fed’s regime, but analysts also see a regulatory upside from the deal.

Why now? Will it work? How will their rivals respond? The megadeal between the two East Coast regionals offers up plenty of grist for speculation.

The deal would be the biggest bank merger in more than a decade; banks would need to show how many days they could last with just cash on hand.

The exemption was included in a suite of other changes unveiled to provide greater transparency to the Fed's stress testing regime.

At banks of all sizes — from the $7.2 billion-asset WSFS Financial to the $373 billion-asset Capital One — marketing budgets ballooned in the fourth quarter.

The tech giants, along with Apple, PayPal and others, are calling on the Federal Reserve to build a backbone for real-time payments, rejecting large banks’ claims that the task is best left to the private sector.

Building alliances with startups is the most affordable route for community banks that want to offer innovative services, but industry officials cautioned that they must be balanced with smart internal investments, too.

Technology is often cited as the leg up large banks have in winning over customers, but regionals are worried about the “billions and billions” bigger rivals can pour into ubiquitous ad campaigns.

Are midsize banks in position to disrupt, or are they investing billions in technology because they can’t afford not to?

Banks technically relieved of the “systemically important” label in last spring’s legislative package are lobbying regulators hard over concerns that they could still face tough standards.

On paper, conditions would seem favorable for regional banks to pursue acquisitions in order to overcome organic growth challenges. But executives have poured cold water on that idea in recent days.

A shifting C&I landscape, heated competition for deposits and red flags in consumer lending also took center stage in often testy exchanges between bankers and analysts on quarterly earnings calls.

The North Carolina company reported slightly lower costs and a stable net interest margin in the third quarter.

Even among the experts in the payments industry, people still use cash. Banks can't ignore this, according to Paul Amisano, senior vice president for enterprise digital and payments strategy at BB&T.

It’s a testament to Duck’s leadership skills that BB&T was able to revamp much of its tech infrastructure in the span of a year. It’s even more impressive that the bank hit its tech targets while its CIO was fighting the battle of her life.

Several hard realities, including legacy technology and the pace of change in software and apps, leave firms vulnerable to outages that stir public outcry.