Commercial lending

FirstBank Florida in Miami has recruited five bankers from area competitors to bolster its commercial banking department.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will unveil sweeping federal regulations Thursday for payday lenders that could open the door for competition from banks, while forcing lenders to move toward longer-term installment loans. Here's what to track when the plan is released.

At least three community banks have hired lenders who once worked at banks bought by BB&T. The question is whether those lenders can coax their clients to also make a switch.

The pricing of student loans, and higher-ed degrees themselves, should have more to do with the proven earning power of a university's graduates in the eyes of some innovators. Big data could play a huge role.

The idea that restricted access to loans for poor-credit borrowers is unequivocally a bad thing is based on industry talking points that don't stand up to real-world scrutiny.

In addition to credit risk from leveraged loans and other types of assets, an added worry for participations is how they would be treated in a failure of the originating bank.

LendingClub, the online loan platform looking to restore investor confidence, is in talks with Citigroup to arrange more funding for the debts it arranges, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

Radius Bank in Boston has recruited a team to lead a national push into Small Business Administration lending. Among the new hires is Diane Gallion, a former executive at The Bancorp in Delaware, who will be national director of government-guaranteed lending at Radius.

Large enough to meet the needs of most customers yet small enough to escape some of the Dodd-Frank Act's most onerous compliance expenses, banks with assets of $2 billion to $10 billion are more profitable, as a group, than their smaller and larger counterparts, according to an analysis by Capital Performance Group.

Fulton Financial in Lancaster, Pa., has hired Lynn Ozer as president of Small Business Administration lending. Before joining Fulton, Ozer led a small-business lending team at Susquehanna Bancshares that was largely dismissed after the company's sale to BB&T.

The Obama administration and an independent federal banking agency are advising the Supreme Court not to review a lower-court ruling that has roiled the marketplace lending sector and caused consternation throughout much of the consumer finance industry.

CenterState in Florida and Union Savings in Connecticut are adding specialists to their retail locations at a time when many other banks are cutting back or have been relying heavily on universal bankers.

During the ascension of marketplace lending, banks responded to the competitive threat in several different ways. Now some banks are better positioned than others to take advantage of the online sector's recent woes.

Nonperforming commercial-and-industrial loans are soaring, and loans to farmers and construction firms — not just oil and gas companies — are a big reason.

The nascent industry's early success will mean very little if these new companies don't take necessary steps to position themselves for the long term.

Banks and nonbanks should accept that more fintech regulation is inevitable, but how far regulators go will depend in part on how well companies demonstrate they are managing risk.

One of the country's largest online lenders is cutting jobs and shelving expansion plans in response to investors' rapid retreat from the beleaguered sector.

UMB Financial took its lumps last year when its funds management business suffered from large outflows. The challenge prompted UMB to tighten up on expenses and rely more on revenue tied to its balance sheet.

The financial services sector would benefit from companies — banks included — submitting dedicated disclosures on the impact of climate change.

A study commissioned by the Massachusetts Bankers Association found a correlation between a spike in credit unions with low-income designations and an increase in member business lending in the state.