Sterling Bancorp is suing its founder and former CEO, Scott Seligman, to get him to repay dividends it alleges are tied to his influence over its problematic Advantage Loan program. The lawsuit claims Seligman was so controlling he even used a robot — nicknamed the "Scott Bot" — to surveil employees.

Walden Mutual in New Hampshire is targeting a mid-November opening after winning final approval for its deposit insurance application from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Prosperity will pay $341.6 million for First Bancshares of Texas and $228.7 million for Lone Star State Bancshares. Both deals are slated to close early next year.

Using a local beach as a canvas for its billboard — which vanishes as the tide comes in — the bank is drawing attention to how customers' financial choices can affect the environment.

The Pittsburgh-based parent of First National Bank of Pennsylvania plans to close its $117 million buyout of UB Bancorp in December.

Daniel D. Robb of Jonesburg State Bank takes over as chairman of the American Bankers Association, which elected officers and board members for 2022-23 at its annual convention.

Analysts are watching to see if more lenders join the ranks of First Northwest in Washington state and Orrstown Financial Services in Pennsylvania, which laid off staff or closed branches to offset rising wages and other expenses.

Financial institutions of all sizes — from JPMorgan Chase to SouthState to Fairwinds Credit Union — have reopened many branches, rolled out mobile banking units as well as reemployed pandemic-era digital and loan-forgiveness strategies in parts of Florida and South Carolina devastated by the powerful hurricane.

Taichung Commercial Bank said it would pay $82.1 million to buy American Continental Bancorp in suburban Los Angeles.

In this month's roundup of American Banker's favorite stories: Home appraisers get disillusioned, a couple lives mortgage-free for 13 years, digging into the cracks in credit quality, quantum computing's future in banking, and more.

The company said a national search ended in its backyard with the hiring of Wisconsin veteran banker Tim Schneider, the former CEO and co-founder of Investors Community Bank.

Nearly nine out of 10 bankers surveyed by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors ranked the specter of rising deposit costs and narrowing margins as their top concern.

Leaders who set clear expectations do not create hostile settings. If anything, good people are motivated knowing what they do is noticed and matters.

Investors are looking past the current boom in loan activity, fearing that inflation and other factors will cool demand and make it harder for borrowers to make payments.

The same day Provident Financial Services announced it had agreed to buy Lakeland for $1.3 billion, the seller disclosed an ongoing fair-lending investigation by the Justice Department. Provident said it has "not heard anything" that would give it pause.

The all-stock acquisition of Lakeland Bancorp, expected to close in the second quarter of 2023, would create a combined bank with more than $25 billion of assets.

Following an outcry, the Philadelphia company said its chairman and CEO, Harry Madonna — who would receive a $1 million windfall if the bank is sold — won't be part of the strategic review committee set up to evaluate any bids.

Vermont State Employees Credit Union is attracting new cannabis clients so rapidly that it had to press the pause button to add staff. Another New England lender, Needham Bank, is building its own pot banking business through acquisition.

Reports of the death of branch banking have been greatly exaggerated.