Fulton Financial received the necessary approvals to acquire Blue Foundry Bancorp; JPMorgan hired two Bank of America health care veterans while shuffling leadership; Mizuho Financial Group has plans to replace about 5,000 administrative jobs with artificial intelligence over the next 10 years; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Preferred Bank moved a $115 million block of loans to nonaccrual status after the borrower, which is battling fraud charges leveled by other banks, began missing payments.

The threats posed by financial criminals, from fraudsters to money launderers, are evolving at a pace that far outstrips the education of bankers charged with combating them. That needs to change.

Decisions about the kind of blockchains to use in rolling out banking products creates future path dependencies. It's important that banks get this decision right.

The Brazilian neobank attributed a Q4 boost in its credit portfolio to its AI-powered underwriting tool, but expenses caused it to miss Wall Street estimates.

Acquiring the $386 million-asset Pacific West Bancorp extends a strengthening bull market for bank M&A.

After completing a migration to its proprietary tech stack, Chime is setting its sights on GAAP profitability in 2026 following a strong fourth quarter.

Willamette Valley Bank cited consumer shifts to nonbanks and stubborn interest rates behind the decision, joining a line of institutions to exit since 2025.

Noelle Acheson argues that stablecoins can help community banks deepen relationships with their customers, help them explore new forms of capital formation and strengthen their own exposure to risk.

At an investor day in London, Banco Santander executives laid out the Spanish company's new financial goals, including a goal to improve a key profitability metric in the U.S. The pending acquisition of Webster Financial in Connecticut is part of the strategy to achieve higher returns, they said.

A negative work environment with unhappy employees is going to adversely impact the customer experience, even when employees don't voice their dissatisfaction out loud. Bank managers need to create a positive culture.

The payments firm wants to issue a stablecoin called PAYO-USD, joining a wave of digital asset companies seeking federal bank charters.

Banks that have more than $50 billion of assets but are smaller than the megabanks scored the lowest on customer satisfaction, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index's 2026 finance study. The industry's overall score remained stable.

The headlong rush to apply AI to all sorts of internal systems runs the risk of damaging consumer trust in the industry. Banks should look to their history and be deliberate about how they integrate AI into their systems.

The investors agreed to buy 499 million shares of Citi's Mexican retail unit for around $2.5 billion. The sale was at a small premium to the initial stake the megabank sold to Mexican billionaire Fernando Chico Pardo last year. 

A written agreement between Kentucky First Federal Bancorp and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency was terminated in 20 months, less than half the time that management feared it might take.

Banc of California appoints Chris Healy its new executive director and head of payments; Lia Fordjour is named chief financial officer of the American Bankers Association; Airwallex is the latest fintech to lean on sports sponsorships; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

The New York City-based lender, whose roots lie in taxi lending, believes an expanded home-improvement loan operation will generate mid-teen loan growth this year.

Lenders with between $10 billion and $100 billion of assets grew their core deposits by more than 8% last year, or more than double the industry-wide average. Merger activity was largely responsible for the outsized growth.

The Olympics are boosting spending in Italy, large-in-part thanks to Americans. In the U.K., Barclays is reportedly leading a meeting to seek support for an existing project. The meeting comes against the backdrop of geopolitical concerns and the dominance of American-based payment firms.