Banking

A written agreement between Kentucky First Federal Bancorp and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was terminated in 20 months, less than half the time that management feared it might take.

The North Carolina-based megabank is making a $25 billion commitment to private credit — the latest signal that banks are undeterred, even as Wall Street raises alarm bells about the sector.

Banc of California appoints Chris Healy its new executive director and head of payments; Lia Fordjour is named chief financial officer of the American Bankers Association; Airwallex is the latest fintech to lean on sports sponsorships; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Banks are deploying extremely powerful AI systems but expecting generalist employees to operate them safely and consistently without redesigning workflows around the technology. That virtually guarantees a bad outcome.

The Buffalo-based bank didn't specify the size of potential losses from a suit that grew out of the collapse of subprime auto lender Tricolor Holdings. M&T said its trust subsidiary will "vigorously defend itself" against claims by investors who allege that it should have protected them from alleged fraud.

The stablecoin arm of Stripe recently announced its conditional trust charter approval from the OCC and a partnership with business payments fintech Payoneer.

The New York City-based lender, whose roots lie in taxi lending, believes an expanded home-improvement loan operation will generate mid-teen loan growth this year.

Lenders with between $10 billion and $100 billion of assets grew their core deposits by more than 8% last year, or more than double the industry-wide average. Merger activity was largely responsible for the outsized growth.

The Olympics are boosting spending in Italy, large-in-part thanks to Americans. In the U.K., Barclays is reportedly leading a meeting to seek support for an existing project. The meeting comes against the backdrop of geopolitical concerns and the dominance of American-based payment firms.

The sale of AO Citibank to Moscow-based Renaissance Capital marks the end of an exit plan that started in 2021 and expanded after Russia invaded Ukraine the following year.

Data breach extortion group ShinyHunters used social engineering to steal customer names, addresses and phone numbers from the blockchain lender.

About 70% of bank CEOs said in a recent survey that they are the AI decision makers in their companies. The reasons for this range from the huge impact AI can have on an organization to the fear of missing out. 

A White House Council of Economic Advisers report published Tuesday found that the CFPB cost consumers between $237 and $369 billion since its creation, an analysis that consumer advocates and some financial academics say is flawed.

Beneficial State Bank in Oakland has reached a three-year agreement with the Communications Workers of America. The deal follows a groundbreaking union pact the bank signed in 2021.

Doubling down on what has worked in the past — especially if it's still working now — may inadvertently trap banks into business models ill-suited for the future. Smart bankers make room for change before it is forced on them.

The fintech deal market has started to return to pre-pandemic levels, according to recent Pitchbook data, with boosts from big deals like Revolut's fundraises.

Research from American Banker finds that executives are under pressure from nonbank firms and are concerned about identity theft in 2026.

JPMorganChase, Citi, Vantage Bank and Custodia Bank have all chosen ethereum as the underpinning for blockchain projects such as tokenized deposits. The chairman of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance explains the OG blockchain.

As artificial intelligence increasingly plays a role in the regulation of banks and other financial services firms, regulators need to be certain that these new systems aren't importing old biases into modern oversight.

Financial fraud in the U.S. has become so sophisticated that it now has its own internal economy, complete with supply chains and customer service. Banks need to wake up to the reality that the landscape has changed.