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.