The racially targeted mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store in 2022 has renewed conversations about whether banks have a duty to help segregated, impoverished communities that were shaped in part by discriminatory lending practices. What do banks owe the Black community, and what influence could they have?

Regulators noted the demise of Heartland Tri-State Bank involved an isolated problem. Industry observers cautioned against prediction of more failures to follow, saying second-quarter earnings show community banks generally remain in sound financial health.

Gateway First Bank, a former nonbank home lender, rode the pandemic era's mortgage wave to No. 1 on American Banker's latest list of top-performing banks based on full-year 2022 data. Now it has to cope with the housing market slowdown.

Big Poppy Bancorp has applied to the Federal Reserve to acquire up to 24.99% of Summit State Bank. Both institutions are headquartered in Santa Rosa. Combining them would create the city's biggest bank.

Like many of its peers, the bank is grappling with higher deposit costs and net interest margin pressure.

The Wilmington, North Carolina-based small-business lender is prepping a wider rollout of the business checking account it introduced in the first quarter. Chairman and CEO Chip Mahan said the move will allow the company to "nip at [its competitors'] edges as their customers feel less appreciated."

Stock markets have shot up as investors grow hopeful that the United States will avoid a recession. But nearly 3 in 4 community bankers are less optimistic that the Fed will achieve its mission of reducing inflation without causing a downturn, a survey from IntraFi found.

The $417 million agreement would give Richmond, Virginia-based Atlantic Union Bankshares "the critical mass" it needs in its home state and neighboring North Carolina, according to CEO John Asbury. He and his counterpart Jeff Haley at American National Bankshares in Danville, Virginia, describe each other as longtime pals.

During the company's second-quarter earnings call, CEO Jim Ryan acknowledged employees' "resiliency and their commitment to supporting one another" after a gunman opened fire on a Louisville, Kentucky, branch in April.

The deal is expected to close late in 2023 or early next year and be immediately accretive to the combined company's earnings.

Several community banks noted an uptick in problem loans in second-quarter earnings reports. Small lenders should brace for more of this, industry observers noted.

Brian Plum abruptly stepped down as president and CEO of the Charlottesville, Virginia, company last week. Blue Ridge also announced that it would not pay a dividend in the third quarter.

Scully, who founded and then eventually sold Howard Bank, will help the Rockville, Maryland-based Capital expand its footprint in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

An executive with the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago pushes back on a BankThink article criticizing the Mortgage Partnership Finance program.

The New Jersey institution has hired Jeanne Scungio, a veteran banker who ran First Republic Bank's New York operations, to oversee its expansion into the Big Apple.

The average credit union member had saved $286 less in March compared to a year earlier. That was the largest per-member drop in credit union history, fueled by rising costs of living and more aggressive competition.

With no settlement in sight, Spencer Savings Bank's case against a group of former depositors it says conspired with Larry Seidman to force a conversion appears headed for a courtroom battle.

The company said long-time chief executive Chuck Sulerzyski would retire in 2024 and be succeeded by Tyler Wilcox, Peoples' executive vice president of community banking.

The Kentucky company says its newly purchased equipment financing unit will strengthen its presence in the market for leasing office furniture, computers and other lower-cost essentials that customers will still buy in an unpredictable economy.

They're wary of deteriorating economic conditions and the bite higher interest rates could take out of profits, according to the latest index of small-bank executives' sentiments by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. The index fell to its lowest level since it was created in 2019.