Commercial lending

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and PNC reported lackluster revenue growth as higher trading fees and increases in commercial lending barely compensated for consumer-side challenges.

PNC’s fourth-quarter profit improved on higher lending to corporate customers for real estate and other loans.

Bank of America, the second-largest U.S. lender by assets, said fourth-quarter profit rose 43% as revenue from fixed-income trading increased and expenses dropped.

Banks have started reconsidering how much they are willing to pay for low-income housing tax credits.

Any economic environment, including this one, has risks but it is unclear whether banks are sufficiently worried about what lies ahead.

The U.K.-based firm has raised $373 million from investors since it was founded in 2010.

Credit unions have enjoyed a multiyear run of solid growth in membership and originations. Rising rates and the potential for regulatory overhaul could mean new competition — just as refi volumes are set to fall.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's decision to offer a special-purpose charter for fintech firms may entice more players than expected.

Two influential Democratic senators' surprise objections to the OCC's fintech charter show that the initiative may be more politically fraught than the industry and agency expected.

F.N.B., Iberiabank and Simmons First are among the banks entering new regions. A growing need for scale and increased use of technology are among the reasons for their aggressive moves.

In a letter Monday to Comptroller Thomas Curry, Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., registered their strong opposition to the concept of the charter, which would allow certain types of fintech companies to avoid state licensing requirements by obtaining a limited-purpose national bank charter.

A little more than two years after Community National Bank in Great Neck, N.Y., agreed to sell itself, Stuart H. Lubow, its former chairman and CEO, has jumped back into banking.

A little more than two years after Community National Bank in Great Neck, N.Y., agreed to sell itself, Stuart H. Lubow, its former chairman and CEO, has jumped back into banking.

Both banks and fintech firms have a lot of questions about the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's proposed new charter, including exactly how the agency will ensure nonbanks don't get a leg up on bank competitors.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's decision to offer a special-purpose charter for fintech firms may entice more players than expected, including mortgage lenders and even some payday lending shops.

Even in a digital era, human connections still matter. That is one big disadvantage for fintech startups and increasingly for banks as customers stop making regular branch visits. So it is instructive to hear SoFi's thinking on how to overcome this challenge. It is trying some unorthodox tactics to better understand the people behind the data and to create meaningful connections with them.

From Dimon's campaign against earnings guidance to the bottom-line implications of rising rates, here are more of our favorite stories of the year. (See part I here.)

Kenneth Mahon, the new CEO of Dime Community Bank, wants to reduce the 152-year-old institution's multifamily exposure by diversifying into other asset classes. But finding new business amid already fierce competition could be an immense challenge for Dime — and other community banks — in 2017.

The Rural Housing Service is expanding its manufactured housing loan guarantee program to include more refinancings of used or existing manufactured homes.

The commercial-and-industrial loan space is overheated, higher rates could stifle mortgage refinancings, and subprime auto delinquencies are on the rise. Bankers could be fighting these fires and more in the new year.