Commercial lending

TCF Financial in Wayzata, Minn., reported higher profits on lower provision costs and a pickup in lending in the fourth quarter.

Bank executives have faced relentless questions about their energy-sector exposure during fourth-quarter earnings calls this month, as oil has bobbed above and below $30 a barrel. They are taking more drastic actions to contain losses, but it still might not be enough.

The energy sector downturn took a big bite out of quarterly earnings at Cullen/Frost Bankers in San Antonio.

Enterprise Financial Services in Clayton, Mo., has acquired a $21 million loan portfolio as part of its formation of an aircraft financing unit.

Ag lenders enjoyed solid credit metrics and an increase in farms loans in 2015. Those results could come under pressure this year, requiring bankers to become more vigilant in talking to their agricultural clients.

Regulators and alarmists are targeting a key source of financing on which some of the best-known American companies rely.

It is too early in the Providence, R.I., bank's turnaround plan to buy another bank, CEO Bruce Van Saun says. Instead, he would rather invest in acquiring commercial, mortgage and other loan officers who can feed revenue while he tries to make the bank more efficient.

A new class of fintech startups is using loan applicants' social networks to determine creditworthiness as the banking industry debates the merits of alternate underwriting methods.

Associated Banc-Corp in Green Bay, Wis., reported fourth-quarter earnings of $42.8 million, a 12.2% drop from a year earlier as the company set aside a significantly higher amount of money to address potential problems in its energy portfolio.

The collapse in oil prices hammered fourth-quarter profits at Hancock Holding as the Gulfport, Miss., sharply boosted its loan-loss provision address weakness in its energy loan book.

At least five regional banks on Thursday discarded concerns about the global economy, stocks, interest rates and credit quality, forecasting loan growth for the rest of this year.

Fourth-quarter earnings reports probably couldn't have been scheduled for a worse time. Banks reported results (and sometimes good ones) right as the markets and the price of oil tanked. The cold reception from investors and analysts is a reminder of how sometimes the analysis of a banks' numbers has little to do with the past quarter, and more to do what's going on right now.

Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, reported higher fourth-quarter earnings, citing increases in commercial and auto lending and fees from deposit accounts and payment processing.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., is the latest bank to partner with an online lender, announcing an agreement Thursday to refer certain small-business customers to OnDeck Capital.

LendUp, which makes subprime consumer loans online and over mobile phones, announced Wednesday that it has raised $50 million in equity funding, plus an additional $100 million in debt financing.

BlueVine, a Palo Alto, Calif., firm that is aiming to modernize the invoice-financing business, announced a new fundraising round on Wednesday.

The Current Expected Loss Credit model will help to quantify bankers' intuition and can be built with readily available data.

LoanHero, an online lender specializing in consumer loans at the cash register, announced that it has raised $2.5 million in seed funding.

Online lenders like Aprenita, Payability and Pollen VC have all launched within the last 13 months to fill a need they say is not being met by traditional banks, and only partially by venture capitalists and invoice-financing companies.

Still facing revenue challenges, Regions, PNC and U.S. Bank vowed to reduce overhead in 2016. The cuts are less about bolstering short-term returns than funding investments in cutting-edge technologies or new products and services to remain competitive.