Retail & Commercial

BB&T Corp., North Carolina's second-largest lender, is cutting jobs in its securities unit while scaling back institutional equity sales and trading activity.

Regional banks need all the growth opportunities they can get, and Fifth Third says it has found one in catering to European businesses that need to expand in North America to escape domestic economic issues.

The popular German digital startup Fidor Bank has agreed to be acquired by Groupe BPCE, the second-largest French bank.

Iberiabank in Lafayette, La., neutralized the energy issues common to Gulf region lenders these days with a one-two punch of stronger fee income and robust, more profitable lending.

Multiple acquisitions weighed down quarterly profit at TowneBank in Suffolk, Va.

Banks need to improve their use of technology designed for small-business customers soon, or risk losing them.

The week Hillary Clinton made history for women by winning her party's presidential nomination, and newspapers everywhere featured her husband Bill in their front-page photos. (Go figure.) Fed governor Lael Brainard is being touted as a possible Clinton cabinet member. Sallie Krawcheck and Jenny Knott talk Wall Street then and now, and so does Barbara Byrne, whose stories you may find mirrored in the upcoming movie "Equity." U.S. Bancorp has family therapists for the ultra-rich. Plus, Claire Calmejane, Mary Callahan Erdoes and Beth Mooney.

The $1.8 billion-asset Sunflower expects to combine with the $2.2 billion-asset Strategic Growth to create a company with $3 billion in loans and 60 branches in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas.

A less discussed but arguably more important application of the blockchain is to help serve the unbanked masses, including refugees.

There may be bumps along the way, but PayPal, Mastercard and Visa all share the same goal, according to Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga.