Banking

Reluctant to cancel what have become pipelines for developing talent, banks are delaying start dates or moving programs entirely online.

A combination of digital and cloud capabilities, data gathering and regulatory experience should give smaller banks an edge over nonbanks.

Q1 profits expected to drop by nearly 25%, while investment banking revenues could tank much more; many banks have tighter standards than the SBA.

Banks, which previously shunned unsecured small-dollar lending, are now embracing the product because of the outbreak. It's just a matter of whether the shift is permanent.

In blue states in particular, governors and attorneys general are taking up the mantle of consumer protection during the coronavirus emergency, effectively adding another layer of regulation to the patchwork of state and federal oversight.

After opening-day fiasco, SBA upgrades lender portal with Amazon assist; West Virginia’s First State Bank closed by regulators; BofA offers emergency loans to borrowers first, freezing out depositors; and more from this week’s most-read stories.

Bank of America, which came under fire for prioritizing applications from existing small-business customers, asked a federal judge in Baltimore to reject a request in a lawsuit to temporarily bar it from employing the practice.

Bankers say they’re still trying to figure out if the Fed’s complex loan-buying vehicles will help them cater to the needs of midsize commercial customers hammered by the economic shock from the coronavirus outbreak.

The week-old Paycheck Protection Program will be opened up to sole proprietors and independent contractors on Friday.

Midsize businesses and state and local governments are among the beneficiaries of the central bank's latest $2 trillion effort to mitigate the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Many states are offering additional flexibility as more consumers dip into their savings as a result of the pandemic’s economic fallout.

Many banks were hitting their limits for lending to small businesses devastated by the coronavirus outbreak. They say the Fed's decisions to help fund additional loans and relax capital requirements will resolve many of their problems.

Customers in the challenger bank's pilot program drew down an average of $200 each in advance of the government's $1,200 payments.

The maneuver could delay efforts by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to add another $250 billion to the Paycheck Protection Program.

The majority of small businesses faced a financial challenge last year and that was before the pandemic curtailed consumer demand and forced nonessential companies to close.

Critics who argue this crisis mirrors the 2008 financial panic when Congress bailed out banks have it wrong. The new relief package in response to the coronavirus pandemic was necessary to save livelihoods, and more can be done.

The Fed's actions are designed to ensure the flow of credit to midsize businesses and state and local governments hit hard by the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The bank will be allowed to exceed the limit to enable it to make more small business loans; the CEOs of HSBC and StanChart are also donating part of their pay to coronavirus victim charities.

Upgrade's hybrid loan-card product can now be used without swiping as consumers and retail workers seek to minimize spread of novel coronavirus.

Closed showrooms, temporary bans on repossessions and a sudden spike in unemployment have dimmed the prospects of a sector that has boomed since the last recession.