LevelField CEO Gene Grant says its strategy for merging with Burling Bank is super-conservative, despite an intention to serve the digital-asset community. "We've taken everything out of the business plan" that might give regulators pause, he says.

The bank, which is beleaguered by digital-asset portfolio forced loan charge-offs that led to a loss in the third quarter and for the full year, climbed to a net income of $2.7 million for the fourth quarter.

As companies downsize and restructure, American Banker is tracking these decisions to help our readers understand how their industries are adapting.

The Radnor, Pennsylvania-based financial technology company made an unsuccessful bid to buy a bank. Now it is shifting into expense-reduction mode.

Famous for his hand-typed "Guenther-gram" messages, the longtime Independent Community Bankers of America CEO played a critical role in boosting the trade group's political clout after it moved to Washington from Sauk Centre, Minnesota, in 1982.

Indexes show heightened expectations for a recession and souring loans. But executives are upbeat about middle-market businesses and overall job growth.

Banks need to be cautious about negotiating pre-merger Community Benefit Agreements with nationwide activist groups. The deals carry real reputational hazard.

While branch closings remain the norm throughout the industry, the hunt for suddenly scarce deposits is prompting some community banks to move in the opposite direction and expand their branch networks.

Members of the American Bankers Association's Economic Advisory Committee expect gross domestic product to stall in 2023. Other surveys show a modest contraction. Lenders say sentiment among their borrowers also points to a slight slowdown.

Unrelenting pressure to improve efficiency could keep bank merger activity steady or even accelerate it despite several economic and regulatory factors except for one — credit quality, say two veteran Piper Sandler dealmakers.

Many bank CEOs see the end of work from home coming soon, but other industry leaders are not so sure. Meanwhile, much empty office space lies waiting in limbo.

Community bankers already have decades of experience managing concentration risks and responding to extreme weather events and natural disasters in their communities.

Community banks and credit unions have pooled their resources and ideas to develop a bilingual challenger bank, banking-as-a-service playbook, cheaper alternative to Zelle and other innovations.

AmeriServ Financial in Johnstown boosted earnings through the first nine months of 2022, but not enough to satisfy Abbott Cooper, who called the company a "prolonged underperformer."

Investors worry the intersection of rising interest rates and festering inflation could conjure a recession and drive loan losses. This would keep stock prices suppressed, but share buybacks and merger activity could counter that.

Eric Bergevin, president and CEO of Integrated Financial Holdings, was killed in the Jan. 7 accident, the company said.

The bank hired an executive from The Bancorp to manage its risk operations after the incumbent, Jeff Curry, announced his retirement.

The deal would create a $3.2 billion-asset bank with branches in four states, including an expanded presence in Texas.

Christopher Oddleifson plans to step down from the Massachusetts bank in February. The company named Jeffrey Tengel, most recently an executive at M&T Bank, as successor.

The Tupelo, Mississippi-based institution hasn't made a bank deal since 2018, but it has acquired two asset-based lenders in the past 10 months.