Commercial lending

Lending Club, Prosper Marketplace and Funding Circle are locking arms to create a new trade group that will represent the marketplace lending industry in Washington.

As more employers offer student loan repayment assistance to their workers, lenders that specialize in refinancing debt — like Citizens Financial and SoFi — see an opportunity to reel in more customers.

The former head of the FDIC has a longstanding interest in small-dollar consumer lending.

AmeriServ Financial in Johnstown, Pa., will record a first-quarter loss because an unnamed energy-sector client plans to liquidate under bankruptcy protection.

The payments pioneer is transforming its merchant cash advance into a business loan, a move that has significant legal and regulatory implications.

Word that Hancock Holding in Mississippi would more than double its loan-loss allowance has triggered broader questions about how the oil slump could spread beyond the energy portfolios of a whole class of banks.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., has hired Jeffrey Zaks, a CIT Group banker, to lead its new media and entertainment lending group.

Buyers of certain syndicated corporate loans have had an incentive to drag their feet closing trades; they will soon pay a hefty price if they don't do their part. The reform should help lenders get assets off their books faster.

With energy stocks enjoying the biggest rebound since the beginning of the oil rout, short sellers have shifted their sights to regional banks that do business with the industry.

Hancock Holding is warning of more pain in its energy portfolio as low prices continue to hamper oil and gas firms’ ability to repay their loans.