Credit quality

Unsecured personal lending has fallen as many consumers have stashed away cash and paid down credit card balances during the pandemic. The trend probably won’t reverse course anytime soon.

The move will force the Pennsylvania company to report a bigger loss for its fiscal fourth quarter and restate its annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The paucity of distressed-loan sales indicates that most bankers are confident about the underlying health of their portfolios even as the pandemic lingers and loss reserves remain elevated.

Some big banks trimmed their stockpiles that guard against loan losses in the fourth quarter, but overall allowances fell less than many observers predicted. The trend will likely continue given uncertainties surrounding vaccine distribution and the economy.

For now, banks say they have no plans to curtail lending to oil and gas firms, but recent moves by the new administration — including a halt in drilling on federal land and an effort to stop the Keystone XL Pipeline — could cause them to re-evaluate their long-term commitment to the fossil fuel industry.

The Indiana company, which had relied on internal processes that focused on large loans, has bought a suite of software tools to begin looking at relationships based on underlying risk.

The Atlanta company joins a small list of banks that have sold loans to companies struggling with the coronavirus pandemic.

The upstate New York company unloaded three loans, joining a short list of lenders that have purged problematic credits during the pandemic.

The bank's nonaccrual loans have been soaring as the pandemic continues to roil the hospitality sector. M&T executives said they've been working with borrowers to keep them out of foreclosure.

Payments activity “snapped back” in the fourth quarter and should lift revenue the next few quarters, CEO Brian Moynihan said.