Commercial lending

BOK Financial's third-quarter profit fell slightly as higher legal and other costs offset growth in loans and fee income.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency is expanding efforts to encourage the development of new banking products, announcing Wednesday that it will establish an office of innovation to spearhead research and communication related to fintech.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray has revived an ongoing dispute between banks and fintech firms over screen scraping, a method certain companies use to obtain access to consumer bank records.

The online lender is entering the car-loan market at a time when some banks are scaling back and regulators are sounding the alarm about deteriorating underwriting standards.

Bizfi, a New York-based online small-business finance company, announced the hiring of John Donovan as its new chief executive officer.

The acquisition of Middleburg Financial would create a nearly $2.5 billion-asset bank in northern Virginia with strong mortgage originations and a growing wealth management business. It would provide an endgame for Middleburg while also making Access more appealing to potential buyers.

Signature and BankUnited had warned of weakness in their medallion portfolios for months but had resisted taking drastic measures. Things changed when large borrowers started to miss payments.

The California company plans to hire a second chief credit officer to specify monitor commercial lending and specialty lines. At least one analyst said the changes, which also include adjustments to credit policies, calls into question the company's strategic director and growth trajectory.

Signature Bank in New York reported a sharp decline in quarterly profits after suffering steep losses on its Chicago portfolio of taxi medallion loans.

MCA remains a very active area — and has become fiercely competitive.

BB&T in Winston-Salem, N.C., rode recent acquisitions to a record profit in the third quarter.

Its loan-loss provision increased largely due to energy-related loans, but Hancock Holding in Gulfport, Miss., still reported higher third-quarter profits. Lower expenses and an increase in lending for healthcare, equipment finance and mortgages were the main reasons.

First Tennessee Bank in Memphis has recruited a quartet of executives for its expanding specialty banking lines that serve the franchising, healthcare, music, and transportation industries.

Remember how commercial and industrial lending was a hot item in the first half of the year? Not anymore. Blame election-year blues and a regulatory crackdown on CRE, regional bank executives said. The good news is that the hand-wringing over energy lending has largely subsided and banks are taking advantage of new opportunities in specialty lending.

The investment bank will take "a very deliberate and methodical approach" to building its online lending platform, Chief Financial Officer Harvey Schwartz told investors Tuesday, implicitly drawing a contrast to once-highflying startups like Lending Club and Propser.

Attendees at this year's American Bankers Association conference are fixated on the election, fintech competition and banking's changing landscape. While optimistic, many are still wondering where their industry is headed.

The Dallas company said Tuesday that it earned $149 million the third quarter, an increase of nearly 10% over the same period last year and up 150% from this year's first quarter, when plunging oil and gas prices forced it to sharply boost reserves on loans to energy firms.

Such a charter comes with a bevy of legal and policy questions to resolve, including whether parent companies of firms that obtain a fintech charter would have to subject themselves to oversight by the Federal Reserve Board. State regulators, meanwhile, fear a new charter could erode their ability to regulate firms within their jurisdictions.

The California company will report a quarterly loss after credit issues surfaced in its technology lending division. Opus had expressed an interest earlier this year to expand the business after making a key hire.

Bank of America, the second-biggest U.S. lender by assets, said third-quarter profit rose 7.3%, beating analysts’ estimates, as revenue from fixed-income trading was better than predicted and expenses fell.