With the first half of 2017 drawing to a close, bank executives gathered this week at the Morgan Stanley Financial Services conference to discuss their companies’ performance thus far and, more important, outline their priorities for the rest of the year and beyond. Here are some of the highlights.

The hand-wringing over business lending has overshadowed the fact that consumer lending — particularly for regional banks — has become a strong and steady engine of growth.

Earnings at the Dallas-based company more than tripled because of a big improvement in credit quality, higher fee income and other factors.

Banks of all stripes are cheering what the Federal Reserve’s accelerated rate increases promise for net interest income, but big banks and small banks have conflicting notions about how they want to price deposits in the coming months.

As part of the closure, the Hong Kong company — whose brand in U.S. banking was closely linked with Mayo — has shut down its widely followed research division.

Three midsize banks projected increases in loans this year in the latest round of earnings discussions, but their levels of optimism varied, and their commercial lending strategies in some cases conflicted.

Improved credit quality also helped compensate for flat loan growth at the Dallas bank.