Banking Crisis 2023

Banks in the U.S. tend to exist for about half the life span of the average human being. It doesn't have to be that way.

American Banker's annual reputation survey shows regional banks were hit hardest by this spring's bank failures. But there were a few bright spots, including digital-only firms and highly specialized firms.

Banking crises always recur. But time and again, bankers have been shown to operate on the assumption that good times are permanent.

Following reports that the Los Angeles bank was considering strategic options, its deposits fell by $1.7 billion in two days, according to a securities filing. The disclosures shed new light on PacWest's predicament before its merger agreement with Banc of California.

The Federal Reserve has issued a slew of private warnings to lenders with assets of $100 billion to $250 billion, including Citizens Financial Group, Fifth Third Bancorp and M&T Bank, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have until mid-2024 to finalize bank rules without risking a CRA nullification if Republicans run the table in 2024.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has issued proposals that would make banks with $100 billion of assets or more hold more long-term debt as a cost buffer in the event of a collapse and meet new planning requirements in case they ever have to be resolved in an emergency.

Azher Abbasi, executive vice president of the supervision and credit group at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, will retire on Oct. 31. Niel Willardson, a former Minneapolis Fed official, will replace him as interim executive vice president Oct. 1.

After the turbulence of the banking crisis, here are a dozen ideas experts have for keeping the financial system healthy, from American Banker's BankThink op-ed section.

East West Bancorp chief Dominic Ng long faced skepticism from analysts who had questioned his conservative approach to capital allocations — a strategy that has helped his Pasadena-based bank weather decades of ups and downs in the banking industry and survive amid the collapse of other California banks this spring.