Retail & Commercial

The Wilmington, Delaware, bank announced this week that it had purchased Bell Rock Capital. WSFS' management says that legal troubles involving that investment advisory firm's founder won't affect the transaction.

The $1.6 billion-asset company said in a press release Wednesday that its directors "voted to terminate" Kevin Lycklama's employment. Dan Cox, chief credit officer, was named as acting president and CEO.

The deal with private equity firm KKR follows an earlier announced sale of $1.3 billion in medical office loans. The Columbus, Georgia-based company has said it's "proactively optimizing the balance sheet" to position itself for long-term growth.

The nearly $81 million plan to buy Community Financial Group in Spokane, Washington, would mark the 13th acquisition in the past decade for Glacier. The Montana-based bank has more than tripled in size during that time.

The real threat is from undercapitalized banks, and regulators must require large banks to have enough capital to eliminate that threat.

The Alabama bank is rolling out an online platform for corporate clients to manage billing-related communications with their own customers.

Moody's said higher funding costs, a potential decline in bank capital and growing risk in the commercial real-estate industry prompted many of the downgrades.

Seven of the 11 largest credit unions in the country by assets experienced a year-over-year drop in earnings in the second quarter, with increased deposit costs being a primary culprit.

Bankers say regulatory burden, rising costs and intensifying competition will reignite a drive for scale and spur dealmaking provided interest rates level off and the economic outlook improves.

U.S. consumers set a new record during the second quarter, as card debt reached $1.03 trillion. Bankers say a healthy job market has allowed consumers to keep making their monthly payments, but they're also on guard about the impact of the upcoming resumption of federal student loan payments.