Banking

The populist strain that has long animated the left wing of the Democratic party seems to have migrated to the Republican center, benefiting President-elect Donald Trump in this year's election. We're about to find out whether right-wing populism is as earnest as its left-wing predecessor.

The Columbus, Ohio-based bank said its all-stock bid for Penns Woods Bancorp would expand its footprint and give it $1.7 billion of deposits and $1.9 billion of loans.

Months of painful restructuring may be paying off as the Charlottesville, Virginia-based company reported a modest third-quarter profit after more than a year of losses.

There are many ways for the incoming administration to overturn the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's final rule slashing overdraft late fees to $5. But the politics of nullifying the rule is a challenge to an administration that promised lower prices.

The Georgia-based bank plans to hire 85 relationship managers over the next three years to support growth in commercial and middle-market lending and private wealth. "The biggest risk is not being able to hire the bankers," said CEO Kevin Blair.

The bank ends the year with a substantially different profile from early 2024, which brought new leadership, a significant reduction to its mortgage operations and a corporate rebrand.

The combination would create a Northeast regional bank with nearly $24 billion of assets. It would rank as the eighth-largest bank in the Boston metropolitan area by deposit market share.

The Long Island bank is the latest financial institution to use new equity to restructure its balance sheet and unload low-yielding assets. Its stock price tumbled after the shares were priced at a considerable discount.

Affirm partners with Sixth Street to sell its buy now/pay later loans to the investment firm; Associated Banc-Corp promotes Steven Zandpour to deputy head of consumer and business banking; Visa Direct speeds up its money transfers; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

The bank said it redeployed proceeds from the sale into high-yielding investments. It also said it would end an employee pension plan to curb expenses.

A close result was complicated by an hour-long adjournment of the New York-based company's annual meeting that angered dissident investors and left them mulling legal action.

The Canadian bank received approval from the Federal Reserve to increase its ownership stake in KeyCorp to up to 14.9%. The investment is expected to close by the end of this month.

The post-pandemic increase in consumers falling behind on their credit card bills seems to be tapering off. "For 2025, we're seeing a lot of stability in delinquencies," an industry researcher said.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a final rule that would allow banks to either charge $5 for overdraft fees. Alternatively they can charge a courtesy fee to cover costs, or charge higher fees but send annual percentage rate disclosures to the consumer. Bank trade groups sued the bureau to stop the rule.

Orange Bank and Trust in Middletown says it will operate as a boutique commercial bank, focusing on small business, nonprofits and the borough's sizzling housing construction market.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Q3 Quarterly Banking Profile report highlighted net bank income falling 8.6%, but also showed slow delinquency growth in commercial real estate and core income metrics improving across the banking sector.