Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., has taken several steps to help it navigate through a difficult interest rate environment.

Small-business owners heard "no" more often in July when seeking loans from big banks after six months of improving prospects.

New Jersey Community Bank in Freehold has exited a pair of regulatory orders. The $102 million-asset bank also said in a press release Tuesday that two siblings have resigned from its board.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP failed to spot for seven years a multibillion-dollar fraud that led to the demise of Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., a lawyer for the lender's bankruptcy trustee told a Miami jury on Tuesday.

Several court decisions in Delaware could make it harder for shareholders to sue banks following a merger announcement.

The $4.3 billion-asset holding company said in a press release Monday that the fixed- to floating-rate subordinated notes are due in 2026.

Pacific City Financial in Los Angeles has raised $15.3 million in a secondary stock offering.

Under pressure from regulators to beef up risk management in commercial real estate lending, banks are using new software tools to improve analysis.

MidSouth Bancorp in Lafayette, La., has named Troy Cloutier, the son of Chief Executive Rusty Cloutier, to run its bank.

Community banks are often burdened with manual data entry for processing commercial loans. Union State Bank has turned to digitization software to make it easier. It may sound modest in the age of APIs, but it made a quantifiable difference.

NexTier Bank in Butler, Pa., has tapped its chief operating officer as its next leader.

The Bancorp in Wilmington, Del., has raised $74 million by selling common stock and a new series of preferred stock.

The biggest change in banking in the last 60 years is the shift in balance sheets from business lending to real estate finance and therefore more risk tied to volatile real estate prices.

TIAA in New York has agreed to buy EverBank in Jacksonville, Fla.

The former officers and directors for Midwest Bank & Trust have reached a $26.5 million settlement with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. over charges of negligence during the financial crisis.

Financial regulators issued a long-awaited proposal Friday that would allow institutions with less than $1 billion in assets to file a short-form call report.

Despite ongoing challenges, executives at community banks believe they can boost revenue this year. At the same time, pressure is mounting to build scale, which could mean more consolidation.

Banks must use analytics — rather than customer surveys — to determine what does and what does not inspire prospects to become customers.

Susan Ralston plans to stay with Dollar Bank after the Pittsburgh mutual absorbs Bank @tlantec in Virginia Beach, where she is CEO. The longtime executive also plans to keep pushing for reforms designed to preserve the mutual banking model.

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