Retail & Commercial

The community banks join a growing list of banking companies closing locations as customer preferences shift to digital channels.

The Dallas company will pay nearly $54 million for a 49% stake in a lender that operates in 10 states.

The $56 million acquisition will extend Southern California Bancorp's footprint north of Los Angeles.

The Massachusetts community bank, which rebranded last summer, landed on affiliate marketing as one cost-effective way of attracting choice customers to its business checking and crypto banking capabilities.

Citigroup said a full review conducted after the lender mistakenly sent $900 million to a group of investment firms concluded the bank didn’t need to claw back any pay from executives.

The Senate Banking Committee chairman told an audience of community bankers that he supports legislation to close "chartering loopholes" for industrial loan companies and financial technology firms. He also pitched a plan to give all consumers a free digital wallet backed by the Federal Reserve.

Large banks like Chase, PNC and U.S. Bank were seen as having more resources to devote to customer relief and upgrade digital channels that consumers came to rely on, according to a J.D. Power survey.

The Missouri company announced the deal just five months after buying Seacoast Commerce in San Diego.

At first the deal seemed an unlikely marriage of two mortgage-heavy companies. But acquiring the Michigan company would help New York Community accomplish its two chief goals — reducing deposit costs and its concentration of multifamily loans — while giving it the scale to pursue more deals.

Deposits keep flooding in, mortgage lending shows signs of cooling, and bankers can’t agree on when commercial lending will rebound. Here’s what we learned from first-quarter results.