Banking

The avoidance of one of the harsher economic scenarios is good news for banks, which are also contending with tighter profit margins and increasing competition for customers. But loan growth and credit quality could be at risk.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency also is offering more opportunities for public dialogue as stakeholders debate how fast the process should move forward.

The North Carolina bank, which has been facing pressure to curb spending, rolled out a plan that includes job cuts, the consolidation of businesses and lower technology spending. Analysts wonder whether it will soothe investor frustration over Truist's sagging stock price.

Amid concerns that the combination of the National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions and the Credit Union National Association could amplify the voices of only the biggest institutions, the heads of smaller ones see two clear advantages: cost and consistency.

The CU Relief Fund for Ukraine, which launched in late 2022, now takes public donations and is working to recruit more institutions to its cause.

Merchants Bancorp says it will sell a total of four branches to two buyers and focus more on its core residential mortgage lending business. Banks of all sizes have been pruning branch networks in recent years.

Brokered deposits had nothing to do with this year's bank failures, and regulators shouldn't pretend otherwise.

The deal, approved by a federal judge on Friday, resolves claims alleging that former CEO Tim Sloan and other bank executives made misleading statements to investors, the media and Congress.

Merrimack Valley Credit Union is launching a disaster relief loan, William Daley will retire from Wells Fargo, New York Community Bancorp promotes Signorille-Browne to COO and more in the weekly banking news roundup.

Executives at the Columbus, Ohio-based regional bank were convinced by a presentation Veuu, the solution's developer, made earlier this year.

Some analysts and investors want the North Carolina bank to make big changes to meet financial targets, which they say aren't being met more than four years after the BB&T-SunTrust merger. The critics will be closely watching a presentation by top Truist executives on Monday.

The private equity firm GTCR's large investment in R&T Deposit Solutions is a sign of the windfall reciprocal deposit networks are reaping after the bank runs this spring that was driven by customers with large, mostly uninsured deposits.

Ashton Ryan Jr. was convicted on dozens of fraud and conspiracy charges connected to the 2017 failure of the New Orleans bank he founded.

Regulators and the public are still concerned about the condition of the banking system. Bankers can't afford to look away.

After a steep sell-off early in 2023, the sector has recovered ground in summer trading as recession worries ease. But investors remain wary because loan demand is light, deposit costs are high, and net interest margins are under pressure.

When 55 banks were asked to provide metrics on the health of their commercial real estate borrowers, some of them gave data that was six months old. The survey by Moody's Investors Service also found that certain borrowers are already struggling, and others could hit trouble soon, since they'll need to refinance at high interest rates.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s second-quarter report on the state of banking noted that while banks are enjoying strong profits, they face declining deposits, rising unrealized losses and shrinking net interest margins.

Artificial intelligence is on the cusp of solving some of the most chronic problems facing bank managers. They need to embrace it.

Chief Executive Rob Holmes, who launched an attempted turnaround shortly after taking the reins of the Dallas-based bank in 2021, is resisting the lure of share buybacks. Some investors may be growing impatient, but Holmes says the investments he's made are starting to pay off.