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.

BayFirst Financial Corp. said it initiated the process of shuttering its out-of-state network of residential mortgage loan production offices.

The number of U.S. banks has dropped by two-thirds since the mid-1980s. Everyone expects this trend to continue for the foreseeable future. But at what point does M&A cool?

The country's largest banks should deepen partnerships with minority depository institutions and community development financial institutions, and regulators should facilitate that process.

The buyer said it would pay $140 million in cash and stock to acquire Citizens Bancshares. It would gain about $1 billion of assets in and around Missouri's largest city.

So far this year, banks have reported that borrowers continue to repay their loans and delinquency rates remain low. But there are signs that this may change.

Stephens Inc. found only 19% of bankers expect deal volume to pick up over the next 12 months. It was the lowest percentage since the firm's surveys started in 2017.

After a bruising proxy fight that led to the ouster of the Philadelphia bank's former chairman and CEO Vernon Hill, remaining stakeholders find themselves in disagreement over a potential sale of the the company.

Already the nation's largest Small Business Administration lender by dollar volume, the Wilmington-based bank plans to add more than 200 employees and spend $25 million on a new building.