Economy

Banks may need to do more to help small businesses after a hurricane, flood or other calamity as those firms tend to favor nonbank lenders after an emergency for a number of reasons, according to research by four regional Federal Reserve banks.

The rules to comply with the Community Reinvestment Act have become "formulaic and ossified" and must be changed to encourage lending practices the law originally intended to foster, the Fed's top regulator said.

A Virginia bank's decision to pursue a charter in North Carolina puzzles some observers, given the added complexity and costs.

The Chicago custody bank also benefited from a recent acquisition of a UBS business in Europe and the lower federal income tax rate.

Joe Petitti and Jack Knight formerly held leadership posts at First Republic.

New Resource Bank and P2Bi are splitting the risk and revenue associated with asset-based loans.

A $135 million increase in litigation expenses related to its 2011 acquisition of Wilmington Trust overshadowed a wider net interest margin and improved credit quality for the Buffalo, N.Y., company in the first quarter.

Bankers hoped the tax overhaul would stimulate a boom in business borrowing, but several said this week that hasn’t happened yet. PNC’s Bill Demchak warned that the tax cuts could be encouraging lenders to underprice loans.

During earnings calls, bankers praised regulators' latest efforts to modify capital rules. JPMorgan Chase CFO Marianne Lake, meanwhile, called on policymakers to focus on overhauling the G-SIB surcharge.

The bank, which already offers mortgages through seven offices across North Carolina, is the fourth group to announce plans for a de novo in the state.

Over the past week, regulators have proposed the most substantial changes to capital requirements for the largest banks in years, but the most startling thing was how unremarkable they were.

The Pittsburgh company reported a 39% gain in retail banking profits amid a lot of strong first-quarter numbers, yet it still fell short of analysts' earnings expectations by a penny and wants to push for stronger loan growth.

James Smith said his late enrollment in the state’s Republican Party meant he would be ineligible to be a candidate in its August primary and that he did not want to disrupt the nomination process.

The agencies proposed changes to the way they apply a capital backstop to the largest systemically important firms, replacing a static leverage ratio with a more dynamic ratio that takes each bank’s risk profile into account.

The acting director wants to gut the agency, which would harm both consumers and entrepreneurs.

The Treasury secretary has suggested raising an asset cutoff used by the Financial Stability Oversight Council to assess systemically significant nonbanks, removing some hedge funds and other risky firms from the council's purview.

The comptroller said he is looking to capitalize on the industry's strong profits and high capital reserves to reduce costs and lower exam fees next year.

The reserve bank's proposal to address banks and nonbanks that remain "too big to fail" does not include two of the largest such institutions: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

With the largest banks remaining profitable and globally competitive, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said he has not yet heard a compelling case for giving them substantial regulatory relief.

James Smith said he would decide soon whether he’ll seek the Republican nomination for governor. He said he was inspired partly by his recent work on a commission tasked with recommending fixes to the state’s fiscal and economic problems.