Retail & Commercial

Lenders across the country promoted from within to fill top executive roles, including First International Bank & Trust in Watford City, North Dakota.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based bank hired Steven Sugarman to be its president. The former bank CEO, who now heads one of the country's largest mission-based lenders, will help drive an effort to close a capital gap.

The Freddie Mac mortgage rate tracker on Thursday morning showed the conforming 30-year fixed rate mortgage creep closer to the 7% level last seen in May.

The Honolulu-based utility sold a 90.1% stake in American Savings Bank. The deal valued the lender at $450 million.

The trend of credit unions buying banks is a lightning rod for controversy in the banking industry. Despite this, such mergers are increasingly common.

Banks are taking hits in the stock market as they use 2024 to restructure balance sheets and inflation slightly increased in November.

Jamie Dimon and Brian Moynihan are among the eight chief executives whose blunt, pithy or pugnacious turns of phrase made the year more colorful.

A number of banks mixed up their executive teams in the past year, as they shifted strategy, handled regulatory problems or planned for retirement.

Community banking highlights in 2024 included strong deposit growth at a Los Angeles-based digital-only bank, continued regulatory scrutiny of banking-as-a-service arrangements, along with a transformational deal in the Old Dominion.

A record 22 credit unions announced plans to acquire banks in 2024, though the year ended on a discordant note as regulatory concerns appear to have derailed a planned CU-bank deal in Georgia.