The Cleveland-based regional bank is shedding credit risk in a partnership with the private equity giant Blackstone. It's the latest tie-up between asset managers and regional banks that are looking to free up balance-sheet capacity.

The Cleveland-based regional bank was not well positioned for the sharp rise in interest rates last year. But executives say the year ahead will be different, pointing to strong credit quality and a repricing of Key's securities portfolio.

U.S. Bancorp and Truist picked literal names for their virtual assistants to avoid confusing customers, while Fifth Third and Regions created characters called "Jeanie" and "Reggie" to put clients at ease. Other companies are trying to split the difference.

The bank is working with The Clearing House and real estate tech company EMTransfer and is hoping to cut paper and time from the process of selling property.

Cleveland-based KeyCorp posts a subdued profit in the wake of a loan loss provision that was more than six times greater than the level of fourth-quarter net charge-offs.

Only six years ago, KeyBank was nowhere to be found in a ranking of the top 25 banks for lending to developers of affordable housing. Last year, under the leadership of Angela Mago, the bank finished in the No. 2 spot, sandwiched between Citi at No. 1 and JP Morgan Chase at No. 3, according to Affordable Housing Finance.

As KeyBank relies more heavily on automation and cloud-based services, Amy Brady knows the bank will need more engineers. But she also wants more diversity in the engineering group, which has lagged the national average of 8% for Black engineers.

Bank-issued prepaid benefits cards were supposed to help state governments deliver these funds more efficiently. But the pandemic scrambled the economics of these programs.

Fourth-quarter profits rose 10% at the Cleveland company as investment banking income hit a record and nonperforming loans plummeted. Executives say charge-offs will probably start rising in late 2022 but that fee income from capital markets transactions will keep growing.

KeyCorp paid out bonuses to investment bankers of as much as $25,000 in June, according to people familiar with the matter, joining other financial firms that have boosted pay to retain talent.

The company, which is phasing out positions in areas including mainframe computing and lockbox operations, is offering employees 10 hours of instruction per quarter to learn how to manage bots and develop other new skills, Chief Information Officer Amy Brady says.

Commercial and industrial loans fell 14.3% in the second quarter. But CEO Chris Gorman says green shoots are emerging, pointing in particular to recent stability in credit line utilization rates.

Jennifer Eastes is tasked with spearheading and accelerating environmental, social and governance efforts at the Cleveland-based company.

Joe Skarda, who was previously managing director of JPMorgan Chase’s U.S. wealth management central division, will oversee a unit that houses Key’s private bank, family wealth and mass affluent business segments.

The Cleveland company is more than doubling an earlier commitment in order to support racial equity and environmental sustainability.

The Cleveland company will launch the service in March to broaden relationships its Laurel Road student loan refinancing unit has built with health care professionals.

Noninterest income has bolstered profits this year. But its growth is expected to slow over the next two years, making for a gloomy earnings outlook unless vaccine distributions and the economic recovery are relatively swift.