Retail & Commercial

From the election's policy implications for banking to deep analysis of the Wells Fargo scandal, here are some of our favorite stories of the year. Stay tuned for Part II.

A consumer's ability to afford to purchase a home fell to an eight-year low in the fourth quarter because of rapid price appreciation, moderate wage growth and the post-election increase in interest rates, according to Attom Data Solutions.

The management team at Barclays Plc, facing a U.S. demand that it pay up over mortgage misconduct from the financial crisis, dared prosecutors to sue. The Justice Department obliged.

The similarities between the mortgage crisis and subprime auto lending in 2016 are all too obvious, with constrained cash flows, defaults and investor losses all likely.

Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG agreed to pay a combined $12.5 billion to resolve U.S. investigations into sales of the toxic debt that fueled the financial crisis, putting behind them a major dispute that undermined confidence in the banks and raised questions about their turnarounds.

The Federal Reserve has freed Cole Taylor Bank from an enforcement action two years after the Chicago bank was acquired by MB Financial.

Sussex Bancorp in Rockaway, N.J., has raised $15 million by selling fixed- to floating-rate subordinated notes to an institutional investor. It did not name the investor.

Regulators have warned about the dangers of high commercial real estate concentrations despite bankers' assertions that they are managing risk better than they did before the financial crisis. Still, CRE concerns could influence M&A and loan diversification in 2017.

With signs pointing to a possible rebound in de novo activity, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. released a guide to potential organizers about the application process.

FirstBank in Lakewood, Colo., named the successors to its CEO and president, who are both retiring after holding those titles for 17 years.