Deposits

Loan demand is finally picking up after several lackluster quarters. Banks' big challenge is finding cheap deposits to fund all those new loans.

The New York company added eight new client teams in 2018 and established a new division that caters to private equity firms on both coasts.

The nation’s fifth-largest bank now has the financial flexibility to consolidate more branches in existing markets and open new, smaller ones in cities where it has no retail presence, CEO Andy Cecere said.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan and his fellow executives said they see nothing to suggest a slowdown is imminent. Their outlook was far more upbeat than that of JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon.

The San Francisco company's quarterly earnings also reflected higher wealth management revenue.

Robotic process automation is said to have a high return on investment, but adopting it on a large scale has proven challenging, especially at community banks.

As government employees carry on without pay, Cabrillo Credit Union and others must balance liquidity concerns with staying out of a political fight.

Deposit premiums for bank mergers, which topped 10% in 2018 for the first time in years, are expected to keep rising as competition for cheap funding intensifies.

The bank will pay over $15 million in restitution and fines to settle claims that it neglected stop-payment requests and reopened deposit accounts without customers' consent.

New CEO John Turner hasn't fully laid out his vision for the future, but it clearly will involve hiring specialized lenders, balancing labor-saving AI with old-fashioned relationship building, and more streamlining.