Economy

While increasing de novo activity is encouraging, the processes of chartering a bank and applying for deposit insurance are more onerous, lengthy and costly than they need to be.

Home equity lines could double over the next six years. Some banks are actively pursuing the consumer credit opportunity, whereas many still feel stung by the housing crisis, unimpressed by home equity’s comeback so far or fearful of nonbank competition and fraud.

It's been a decent year for banks, especially given the industry's return on assets hit a 10-year high. But there are signs it might not last. With Halloween near, here is a look at some potentially frightening developments that could keep bankers up at night.

It's tough to be a bank director these days, as the public and elected officials hold the board responsible for misdeeds that occur on their watch. Turnover is up, and filling the seats is more of a challenge than ever.

Momentum is building to replace the hard-target $50 billion asset systemic risk threshold for banks with an indicator test, but it remains unclear whether it will be enough to get Congress to act.

The Alabama bank's provision for loan losses rose 59%, but it still reported an 8% increase in 3Q profits thanks to stronger margins and fee income.

Many institutions have delayed planning for a big change to reserve accounting despite a belief that they should start testing systems and methodologies next year.

More people are making a case for regulators to step in, saying banks’ lack of leadership diversity is a risk that they have failed to resolve on their own. There is one very surprising thing about the recent wave of sexual harassment allegations. What kind of program will help women advance? The answer might be one that is for the men.

If Congress changes the $50 billion-asset threshold for systemically important financial institutions, big banks could take it as a signal that regulators would be amenable to larger deals.

The Dodd-Frank Act’s $50 billion threshold for determining which banks are systemically important should be scrapped and replaced with an indicator test, according to the Office of Financial Research.

That loan growth helped boost the San Antonio bank's profit by 16.5% year over year.

While stress testing can provide valuable insight into the strength and resilience of our financial system, regulators are increasingly acknowledging shortcomings in the post-crisis regime.

The industry has the opportunity to expedite gains in interoperability and realize significant cost savings and productivity gains for both the clinical and administrative sides of the industry, writes Chris Seib, chief technology officer and cofounder of InstaMed.

Huntington executives are surprised that chargeoffs are still so low and say they're prepared for things to get worse, yet they remain aggressive in auto and other categories. The juxtaposition is a sign of the times for lenders.

Banks around the world have spent the past few years preparing for competition from small, nimble technology startups. It turns out the real threat may be Jeff Bezos, according to McKinsey & Co. In its annual banking report.

Provision costs surged to $44.5 million from $1.2 million. The company attributed that increase to higher chargeoffs in its taxi book.

Consolidation has led to too few community banks, which is amplified in areas where capital is needed most.

Loan growth drove the New York bank’s 20% increase in third-quarter earnings, and those results don’t include its acquisition of Astoria Financial this month.

Giving merchants direct access to third-party software isn’t new—First Data’s Clover unit introduced the concept three years ago—but Vantiv is giving its approach a custom-development spin with an app marketplace.

The mutual, which agreed to buy First Colebrook Bancorp, had recently opened a limited-service branch in Portsmouth, N.H.