Boston-based Eastern Bankshares says its premium on the sale of Eastern Insurance Group will help fund the acquisition of Cambridge Trust and build a wealth management powerhouse. But some analysts point out more revenue is being sacrificed than gained.

Denver-based InBank will expand into Georgia and Arizona, part of a wider plan to seize market share and build what one executive called a top-tier SBA lender.

The combination would create a company with $27 billion of total assets, $18 billion of loans and $22.6 billion of deposits.

Bankers largely support expanding government-backed farm loan programs, and in general support continued funding for crop insurance. But politics is making swift passage of a traditionally uncontroversial bill challenging.

A movement is afoot to transfer the job of the Federal Home Loan banks to the Federal Reserve. This would be a disaster for small lenders.

Despite an industrywide rough patch, EverBank still sees promise in the niche business line. The Jacksonville, Florida, company has hired a pair of prominent industry experts to lead a new division tasked with serving investment funds.

Lenders either write down portions of soured credits or charge them off altogether to remove them from their balance sheets. Banks also set aside reserves to cover potential future bad loans. This allowance creates a buffer for lenders to absorb losses.

Merchants Bancorp says it will sell a total of four branches to two buyers and focus more on its core residential mortgage lending business. Banks of all sizes have been pruning branch networks in recent years.

Ashton Ryan Jr. was convicted on dozens of fraud and conspiracy charges connected to the 2017 failure of the New Orleans bank he founded.

After a steep sell-off early in 2023, the sector has recovered ground in summer trading as recession worries ease. But investors remain wary because loan demand is light, deposit costs are high, and net interest margins are under pressure.