Retail & Commercial

The auto lender is selling its credit card business and halting new mortgage loans, abandoning its once-broader ambitions. Ally CEO touted the move as "the power of focus."

Mercantile Bank Corp. in Grand Rapids achieved a 20% increase in deposits in 2024, an amount that was ample enough to fund robust loan growth and scale back reliance on costlier wholesale funding.

The New York Department of Financial Services has proposed several changes to overdraft fees including banning banks from charging more than three overdraft or nonsufficient funds fees per consumer per day.

The Dallas-based company expects average loan growth to be flat to up 1% from 2024, driven by the ongoing payoffs of commercial real estate loans, executives said.

Frontwave Credit Union said it would acquire Community Valley Bank in a deal that would expand its footprint in San Diego and nearby counties. It comes on the heels of a record year for CU-bank combinations.

CEO Richard Fairbank told analysts executives have their "microscopes" out for any signs of trouble, but consumers remain "in a great place."

Fees falling outside of tolerances cost the industry more than $1 million per 1,000 loans, according to an ICE Mortgage Technology study from earlier this year.

The Cleveland-based parent company of KeyBank is forecasting net interest income growth of about 20% for 2025, even as it predicts that average loan balances will decline by low-to mid-single digits year-over- year.

The Indiana-based company grew fourth-quarter loans and profits in part because of an acquisition in Nashville, and it expects to bulk up further with a deal in Minnesota's Twin Cities that was among the largest announced in 2024.

The Chicago-based bank, which failed Friday in the first bank failure of 2025, caused a $28.5 million hit to the Deposit Insurance Fund. The FDIC was appointed receiver and Millennium Bank will assume all deposits.