Retail & Commercial

About 70% of Bank of America's customers are now “digitally active” and 17 million people use Erica, its virtual assistant. David Tyrie, who was recently promoted to head of digital, would like to get that rate up to 100%.

MoneyLion, a mobile banking, lending and investment platform, is in talks to go public through a merger with Fusion Acquisition, a blank-check company, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Detroit company, which recently agreed to be sold to Huntington Bancshares, gained $1 billion in loans and roughly 60 employees.

For now, banks say they have no plans to curtail lending to oil and gas firms, but recent moves by the new administration — including a halt in drilling on federal land and an effort to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline — could cause them to re-evaluate their long-term commitment to the fossil fuel industry.

Comerica, Citizens Financial and other companies are buying up securities, paying off high-cost borrowing and trying to develop specialty lending niches. But loan growth remains weak, and the likelihood of extreme volatility in deposits makes it hard to plan ahead.

Like other card issuers, the Stamford, Conn., company expects current trends — soft loan demand but strong credit quality — to reverse later this year as the economy emerges from the pandemic-induced recession.

A rule change that allows farms with just one employee tap the Paycheck Protection Program means more pandemic relief funds are flowing into such states as Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming and North Dakota.

The Indiana company, which had relied on internal processes that focused on large loans, has bought a suite of software tools to begin looking at relationships based on underlying risk.

The administration’s initiative to offer universal high-speed internet service is a chance for bankers to provide underserved households with access to online financial education and low-cost digital accounts.

The Atlanta company joins a small list of banks that have sold loans to companies struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.