Banking

WaFd Bank is using conversational artificial intelligence to make the contact center and online chat experience smoother for both customers and agents.

The agency is needlessly raising banks' costs at a time of severe economic uncertainty.

Kearny Financial is partially restructuring its balance sheet in response to a problem that many banks are facing. The bank's actions should result in a sizeable income boost once they're fully phased in, an analyst said.

The National Credit Union Administration's emergency exemption allowing for remote board and membership meetings at federally chartered institutions is scheduled to lapse at year-end. The agency's chairman recommended hybrid meetings as an option that can satisfy traditional meeting requirements.

Many U.S. companies — including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Apple — have drawn attention for increasing pressure on employees to show up more at the office as COVID-19 concerns ebb. Some credit unions have taken similar steps, while others still insist a hybrid schedule is better for recruitment.

Benefits under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act were applied to fewer than 10% of auto loans for active-duty reserve members, the agency found. It urged financial institutions to ease the process for accessing the law's interest rate protections.

While Silvergate said this month it has "a resilient balance sheet and ample liquidity," and analysts call its financials sound, the bank is today contending with a question as difficult as the one that led it to crypto in the first place: whether the experiment was worth it.

Citing a congressional report, SBA says it will investigate PPP operations at several fintechs, community banks and other participants. The review raises questions about plans to open up the agency's flagship loan-guarantee program to more nonbanks.

New York and California are among the states that have laws requiring lenders to make certain disclosures to small-business borrowers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has reached a preliminary determination that a federal statute does not preempt those state laws.

The acting comptroller of the currency said new CECL standards will help banks weather current economic uncertainty. He also touted the benefits of diversity in risk management.

In a tight job market, banks are exploring new ways to find the employees they need.

William Demchak, the Pittsburgh bank's CEO, is leery of acquiring banks amid elevated regulatory scrutiny. KeyCorp Chief Executive Chris Gorman has similar concerns, citing economic uncertainty in addition to the long waits for approval.

An administrative law judge has recommended that a trio of onetime Wells executives be ordered to pay a combined $18.5 million in connection with the bank's fake-accounts scandal.

Executives at the Minneapolis company said Wednesday that they expect earnings-per-share accretion to be higher than they previously anticipated. But their estimate for merger-related expenses also rose.

After focusing its de novo branching plans on the Carolinas in recent years, the Cincinnati-based bank is ready to shift its attention to Florida and — eventually — to Nashville and Atlanta.

The Dallas-based company is expanding in the Southeast and the Mountain West, and overhauling its digital systems, as part of a plan that executives say will pay off over a two- to five-year period.

Citigroup is seeing countries around the world roll into recessionary environments, with the U.S. economy on track to follow them in the second half of next year, Chief Executive Jane Fraser said.

The bank looked within its own ranks to find its next chief credit officer and to fill the newly created chief banking officer position. It continues a search for its next finance chief following a spate of departures.

Skyla Credit Union in Charlotte, North Carolina, plans to add 9,600 members and $265 million of assets through its deal with Parsons Federal Credit Union.