Banking

Workers are eligible for the one-time cash grants if they earned a salary of less than $75,000 last year, and their total cash compensation was less than $85,000. The payments come amid a unionization push at the San Francisco-based megabank.

The Los Angeles company has sold $6 billion of loans and securities since buying PacWest in November. CEO Jared Wolff said it might get smaller still as it strives to boost profitability.

Several of the company's top leaders, including Jennifer Piepszak, have been given new duties in CEO Jamie Dimon's latest management reorganization. Piepszak and JPMorgan President Daniel Pinto are among those viewed as potential successors to long-serving Dimon.

The private student loan market is in flux after one major lender, Discover Financial Services, said it's leaving the sector. Sallie Mae is gearing up to compete for that business, much as it did when Wells Fargo pulled up stakes in 2020.

Williams, who died this week at age 90, was CEO of SunTrust — one of the banks that would become Truist — for many years. He also served on the boards of several organizations in Atlanta, including Coca-Cola.

Lloyds Banking Group is cutting around 1,600 roles across its branches, part of a push by the lender to provide more services online.

The private equity firm Caryle is buying a $415 million student loan portfolio from Truist Financial. It's also investing in a nonbank student lender called Monogram that works with banks and credit unions.

John Watt, 65, will step down in May after more than seven years as president and CEO of NBT Bancorp in Norwich, New York. The plethora of internal candidates to succeed him made the decision a no-brainer, Watt says.

The Oklahoma-based regional bank expects 6%-7% loan growth in the year ahead. Executives are also projecting that net interest income will start to improve after the metric hits a trough early this year.

After California was hit hard by the banking crisis of 2023, tens of thousands of commercial and consumer customers turned to East West, helping the company achieve record full-year revenue, its CEO says.

Hood, who was first appointed to the National Credit Union Administration in 2005, explained what drove his focus on financial inclusion and the technology that promises to make it possible.

Charging a nonsufficient funds fee on a debit, ATM or peer-to-peer payment that gets declined immediately would be considered "abusive" under a proposed rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The next few years will mark the transition of sustainable finance in Latin America through its adolescence and towards maturity.

Small banks appeared to notch a big win with the exemption from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's overdraft proposal. But some experts are questioning the CFPB's rationale, given research that shows small banks' overreliance on overdraft revenue.

The credit card issuer said it's "cautiously optimistic" about its borrowers' financial health, with charge-offs expected to rise not much further than pre-pandemic levels. The upbeat outlook contrasts with a key competitor's guidance of significantly higher losses.

The Salt Lake City bank says that it doesn't expect major losses, even though its problem loans grew at the end of 2023.

The Tennessee-based bank was forced to keep operating on its own after a proposed acquisition was called off. Months later, First Horizon has picked up new customers and improved its profitability, but investors remain cautious amid plans for catch-up spending on technology.

Several regional banks have projected minimal growth or even a decline in lending this year. But Connecticut-based Webster is bullish based on its pipeline of nonoffice commercial real estate, public finance and other credits, CEO John Ciulla says.

The Indiana bank is "on offense by continuing to invest in new client-facing and key support talent and being ready and opportunistic for acquisitions," CEO Jim Ryan says.

The CFPB is well within its authority to make these changes, which will increase the availability of credit to many Americans.