Commercial lending

The California company acquired Civic Financial Services, which makes loans to residential real estate investors.

Any business loan growth the industry sees this year will be closely tied to mass vaccination efforts and a broader economic recovery, meaning it may take until at least the third quarter for pent-up demand to translate into new opportunities.

The number of Paycheck Protection Program loans to U.S. small businesses more than doubled in the third week of the latest round of pandemic relief aid, as Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase each processed more than $1 billion in funding.

Long hours by bankers and the streamlined resolution of Paycheck Protection Program loans helped lenders collect more fees than anticipated in the fourth quarter. It was a rare bright spot at a time when revenue is being pinched.

The U.S. unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank merged its corporate and specialty team with its commercial banking group, putting the fast-growing operations under the same leadership.

The Detroit company, which recently agreed to be sold to Huntington Bancshares, gained $1 billion in loans and roughly 60 employees.

For now, banks say they have no plans to curtail lending to oil and gas firms, but recent moves by the new administration — including a halt in drilling on federal land and an effort to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline — could cause them to re-evaluate their long-term commitment to the fossil fuel industry.

A rule change that allows farms with just one employee tap the Paycheck Protection Program means more pandemic relief funds are flowing into such states as Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming and North Dakota.

The Atlanta company joins a small list of banks that have sold loans to companies struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.

The rule, finalized in the waning days of the Trump administration and scheduled to take effect in April, would have punished banks for denying services to certain firms without documented reasons for doing so.