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Orion FCU and Greylock FCU announce appointments and promotions while CU League of Connecticut honors three.

Banner Corp. in Walla Walla, Wash., reported higher quarterly profit that reflected its purchase of AmericanWest Bank.

Ally Financial reported strong loan and deposit growth in the first quarter, but a shift in the makeup of its automobile loan portfolio forced the Detroit company to nearly double its loan-loss provision from a year earlier.

Paragon Commercial Bank, Unity Bancorp and Nicolet Bankshares have found success by radically rethinking their strategies.

Profitability is under a lot of pressure for small institutions. But some are handling that pressure better than others, as our annual ranking of publicly traded banks and thrifts with less than $2 billion of assets shows.

Cutting-edge jobs — think chief innovation, strategy and data officers — are on the rise at banks and other lenders, and they are drawing free-thinking, tech-savvy candidates from inside and outside of financial services. American Banker asked several of them to recommend a book or other piece of writing that helped them tackle jobs that often were created from scratch.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., reported a profit of $17.1 million in the first quarter, up 56% from a year earlier, as strong loan growth more than offset higher expenses and an uptick in problem loans. Its earnings per share climbed 50%, to 51 cents.

Bank of Hawaii in Honolulu said Monday that its first-quarter profit increased 18.3%, to $50.2 million, from a year earlier thanks to strong loan growth, improved credit quality and a hefty gain on sales of its Visa shares.

Lance Osborne is vying for two board seats at First Niles Financial in Ohio, but he isn’t pushing the thrift to sell itself. Rather, he wants management to pull money out of securities to make more loans.

CIT Group named John C. Erickson president of its consumer bank and head of operations in California. Erickson, 54, will be based in Pasadena, California, and report to Chief Executive Officer Ellen Alemany.

A decline in expenses and a modest rise in lending income boosted first-quarter profit at Popular in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Bankers blamed regulators' new methodologies for rating certain energy loans – and a new two-stage shared national credit review process – for an increase in downgrades and loan-loss provisions. Regulators reportedly are reacting to an increase in second liens tied to exploration and production companies.

Delaware Bancshares in New York thought it was set to grow and diversify after buying six Bank of America branches. Instead, the deal led to the company selling itself.

Synchrony Financial reported solid earnings growth in the first quarter thanks to increased use of its credit cards, but the firm's credit performance was slightly weaker.

F.N.B.'s acquisition of Metro Bancorp bulked up the Pittsburgh company's loan book, but M&A costs ate into its first-quarter profit.

Members of State Employees' CU, Raleigh, N.C., renewed the SECU Foundation's "People Helping People" high school and community college scholarship programs. Both programs represent the allocation of over $4 million in scholarships annually.

SunTrust Banks in Atlanta increased reserves for downgraded energy loans in the first quarter, but it was still able to produce solid revenue and earnings growth.

Associated Banc-Corp in Green Bay, Wis., reported first-quarter net income of $40 million Thursday, an 11% drop from the same period in 2015. In doing so the $28 billion-asset company joined the lengthening list of banks whose bottom lines fell victim to ongoing tumult in the energy market.

Western Alliance Bancorp. in Phoenix reported higher first-quarter profit as its remains a busy dealmaker.

Some are looking at buying banks or counting on recently announced acquisitions to diversify revenue streams. Others are investing in fee-based businesses and new technologies and all, of course, are trying to keep a lid on expenses.