Retail & Commercial

Top industry executives said this week that price increases are abating, even if they haven't yet fully abated. Their remarks reflect increased confidence that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady — or perhaps even cut them — in the first half of 2024.

The Georgia-based bank says it's expanding its relationship with GreenSky, a home improvement lender that Goldman Sachs bought in 2022 but put up for sale a year later. The deal will bring a one-time revenue boost and a recurring fee income stream.

The bank in Richmond, Virginia, failed to properly disclose its overdraft practices to roughly 8,500 consumers who enrolled by phone or in branches from 2017 to 2020, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The company admitted no wrongdoing.

Recent economic data pushed investors toward Treasurys over the past week, driving 10-year yields to as low as 4.1%.

The Ohio-based regional bank has laid out an ambitious expansion blueprint, including new health care asset-based lending, a Native American financial services unit and a push into commercial banking in North Carolina and South Carolina.

The megabank, which is in the midst of a massive restructuring, will probably book "a couple of hundred million dollars" of restructuring charges in the fourth quarter, according to its chief financial officer.

Frustrated by its inability to overcome loan-servicing mistakes that triggered three separate regulatory consent orders, Discover Financial Services elected to sell its student loan business. "When we looked at it, we have perennial issues in our ability to service that portfolio," a top executive said.

Equity, based in Wichita, Kansas, has agreed to buy the parent company of the Bank of Kirksville. The combined company would have $5.4 billion of assets and 74 branches, including 23 in Missouri.

Too few lenders are underwriting unsecured consumer debt, which could help borrowers pay down credit card balances with little risk to lenders.

The nation's largest bank has already completed many of the branch closings that can boost its earnings, leaving it with "less and less accretive opportunities to consolidate," according to a top executive.