Banking

The U.K. neobank has expanded its U.S. customer base to 300,000 mobile users and diversified its product line to include basic banking, crypto trading and investing.

The Mississippi bank’s addition of more than a dozen bankers last year helped drive a $250 million increase in new loans during the fourth quarter. To keep the momentum going, CEO John Hairston said he intends to hire aggressively in 2022.

“Our intention is to work with all our clients, including our fossil-fuel clients, to develop credible plans and transition to net zero together,” Chief Executive Jane Fraser said.

The decision to drop the London interbank offered rate as a benchmark interest rate means that contracts for hundreds of trillions of dollars in financial assets need to be rewritten. U.S. regulators should allow existing agreements to be amended without the threat of massive litigation.

Fourth-quarter net interest income rose 11% from a year earlier to $11.4 billion at Bank of America, though its average loan balances edged up just 1% over the same period.

The economic and political conditions are in place for bank-credit union mergers to blow past last year's total of 13 despite the banking industry's strong opposition to them.

The nation’s sixth-largest bank will offer a $750 line of credit to customers who need short-term liquidity, and will gradually become less reliant on older accounts that charge the controversial fees. With the plans, Truist is moving in the same direction as many large and midsize banks.

VyStar Credit Union in Jacksonville has been certified as a community development financial institution.

Traditional banks could be forced to add cryptocurrency product offerings in 2022 to compete with fintechs that are taking advantage of blockchain innovations, according to Diogo Mónica, co-founder and president of Anchorage.

Joseph L. McGee, who has run the credit union for more than 20 years, will step down in March. Glenn Bryan, chief operating officer, has been named his successor.

A group of community banks and two major trade associations have formed a partnership with and invested in the fintech NYDIG to offer the service on the banks’ mobile apps by midyear. The banks say it will help them generate revenue and retain customers interested in cryptocurrency.

The companies originally hoped to complete the deal in late 2021. The buyer chalked up the delay to an overburdened Federal Reserve, rather than any problems with its application.

An uptick in commercial borrowers’ credit line utilization rates bodes well for loan growth in 2022, PNC Financial Services Group CEO William Demchak said Tuesday.

While money market fee waivers ate into the company’s revenue last quarter, as low interest rates led asset managers to make concessions to customers, executives predict a turnaround in 2022 after the Federal Reserve starts monetary tightening.

The New York bank attributed the gains to its aggressive hiring of banking teams on both coasts and robust loan demand from private equity and venture capital firms.

It has also taken a stake in Rêv Worldwide, developer of the bank's cross-border traveler account that supports currencies including the U.S. dollar, the euro and the Mexican peso.

Year to date through Sep. 30, 2021. Dollars in thousands.

Citigroup, which has been shedding some of its retail operations as part of a global revamp, is in advanced talks with Taiwan’s Fubon Financial Holding for a sale of its mainland China consumer business, people familiar with the matter said.

The former Zurich Insurance Group executive replaces Antonio Horta-Osorio, who was forced to resign for breaking coronavirus quarantine rules in Switzerland and the U.K.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser is nearing the end of her organizational overhaul after deciding to cut loose retail-banking operations in Mexico. She will make the case at an upcoming investor day that the company is on the verge of producing stronger shareholder returns.