Deposits

Bank CEOs are eyeing a near-term peak in deposit costs as the Fed perhaps moves closer to cutting interest rates. But the pressures they've faced this year as depositors ask for more compensation may not die down right away.

Top industry executives said this week that price increases are abating, even if they haven't yet fully abated. Their remarks reflect increased confidence that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady — or perhaps even cut them — in the first half of 2024.

Los Angeles-based City National Bank recorded a $247 million loss during a tumultuous final quarter of its fiscal year. But executives at the bank's Canadian parent company say they expect a return to profitability in the first quarter.

The Champaign, Illinois-based company said it would pay $41.6 million to acquire Merchants and Manufacturers Bank Corp., which has five branches in the Greater Chicago area.

Shifting from earlier plans, the FDIC has established a special committee to investigate allegations of harassment and a toxic workplace culture at the agency. It will be led by directors Jonathan McKernan and Michael Hsu and may include as many as three nonvoting members from outside the agency.

Bankers are hopeful that several factors could strengthen profits next year, including higher loan demand and more stable funding costs as the Fed holds the line on — or even lowers — interest rates.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has finalized a special assessment that is slightly pricier than originally proposed for banks with uninsured deposits of more than $5 billion. Trade groups voiced concerns that the largest banks are paying to clean up a mess created by regional banks.

Bank failures last spring forced many startup businesses to shift where they store their cash. JPMorgan Chase appears to be the top beneficiary, but other banks say they are just as eager to reel in deposits and do more business with the innovation economy.

The bank was recently sued by customers who say they were misled into thinking that their savings accounts were earning competitive rates. Capital One responded with a series of arguments for why the case should be thrown out.

Longtime customers of Capital One's online banking arm thought they were getting the best possible rate, according to a lawsuit. Little did they realize, they say, that they needed to open a new account in order to benefit from interest rate increases.

Both loans and deposit balances have stabilized since the North Carolina bank acquired parts of the failed Silicon Valley Bank, paving the way for better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings guidance. The only blemish in the third quarter, one analyst said, was credit quality.

The Hicksville, New York, company beat analysts' expectations on net interest income, but a pair of souring office loans contributed to a 68% increase in nonperforming loans from the prior quarter.

"We'll be taking steps to offset expense pressures," CEO Curtis Farmer told analysts after the company reported an 11% year-over-year jump in costs and falling profits.

High deposit costs and low-yielding assets weighed on the company's net interest income, which fell to its weakest level since the first quarter of 2017. But Key executives predicted that a turnaround is coming soon.

The movement of cash to money market funds from bank accounts will diminish lenders' ability to finance small and midsize firms, BlackRock Investment Institute said in a new paper. BlackRock and other money managers have spent much of this year readying to fill that void.

The Westlake, Texas, firm said deposits fell 28% to $284.4 billion in the third quarter from the year prior, beating the $268.8 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Net interest income rose sharply at Wells Fargo and especially JPMorgan Chase last quarter, thanks to lighter-than-expected deposit costs. But questions linger about how long both companies can keep a lid on those expenses and whether smaller competitors can do the same.

Jeffrey Brown, who's been Ally Financial's top executive for nearly nine years, plans to leave the company by early next year. His exit comes as deteriorating credit quality and rising interest rates are biting into Ally's profits.

The biggest laggard among the US banking giants, BofA's investments earn less than its closest rivals, and the stock is the group's worst performer by far.