Regions also saw significant increases in its point-of-sale consumer lending, even though overall loans were slightly down from 2016.

Dueling blockchain stories — one arguing it was virtually useless, the other saying it could change real estate lending — seized the top spots this week, while readers also focused on tax reform aftermath and a key Senate retirement.

Banks have been in full cost-cutting mode in recent years, but with profits expected to increase substantially as a result of tax reform, all analysts and investors want to know is how they plan to spend their tax savings.

Regional and community banks will offer low-cost or no-cost financial products through Bank On, which has already reached agreements with Regions Bank, Wells Fargo and SunTrust.

In a year of political upheaval and weak commercial credit growth, lenders sought to capitalize on an economic bright spot — consumer spending — by reviving the personal loan, allying with fintechs and exiting traditional business lines that no longer made sense.

John Turner, the head of the Birmingham, Ala., company's corporate banking group, takes over the president's title from Chairman and CEO Grayson Hall.

During an industry conference Tuesday, executives from PNC, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and elsewhere offered differing takes on whether the Republican tax plan will boost loan demand.

The British banking giant has been testing its new online lending platform with a handful of its U.S. customers and plans to roll it out in full force next year. It's all part of a broader effort to expand its U.S. consumer business beyond credit cards.

The heads of some of the largest U.S. banks are calling for a new security-focused mindset among executives, better forms of ID and collective action in the aftermath of the Equifax breach.

Rather than pull up stakes and leave two low-income Mississippi towns at the mercy of payday lenders, Regions Bank donated the branches to a local credit union and kicked in another $500,000 for operating costs.