Retail & Commercial

Buying BT Holdings in Texas will take the Louisiana bank close to the size where it would face increased regulatory scrutiny and a reduction in interchange revenue.

The $2.3 trillion-asset company plans to scrap the charges by this summer. It joins Capital One and Ally in doing away with the fees, which face pressure from Biden-era regulators.

The Houston bank negotiated the agreement with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition after closing its merger with BancorpSouth. That deal created a lender with $50 billion of assets and operations in nine states.

Royal Bank of Canada is still benefiting from the pandemic-era boom in capital markets.

Banks flush with liquidity are likely to keep deposit yields low even as the rates they earn on loans widen, which should result in higher net interest income. One industry analyst predicts “NII to the sky.”

A busy end to the year for Barclays’ dealmakers helped offset a slump in trading activity and lift the British bank to its highest annual profit on record.

Roughly two dozen countries have issued central bank digital currencies or have pilots underway. But until financial services firms strengthen the security of their mobile apps, these payment tools are unlikely to gain widespread acceptance.

Canadian banks have frozen just over 200 accounts under emergency powers invoked by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that are meant to end protests in Ottawa and at key border crossings, a government official said this week.

Paywallet CEO DK Sharma has raised about $14 million for a system that facilitates loans of up to $10,000, with installments coming out of borrowers' pay. It's meant to be an alternative to payday lenders.

After Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized two self-proclaimed separatist republics in eastern Ukraine, lenders such as SocGen, UniCredit and Raiffeisen look increasingly exposed to the knock-on effects of financial sanctions by Western governments.