Expense management

The bank will spend an additional $1.4 billion on technology in 2018 to gain share and boost efficiency, executives said Tuesday. But they were peppered with questions about whether the big investment will yield a big financial return down the road.

A mix of tax sweeteners and a lower cost of living has prompted banks such as MUFG Americas, Northern Trust and Bank of the West to locate corporate-level jobs in Phoenix and surrounding areas.

You read that right. Community bankers hope efforts by JPMorgan Chase, Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway will drive down health care costs — and maybe create products or services they can use.

Executives at U.S. Bancorp and Bank of America plan to use their tax savings to ramp up spending on new technology to stay competitive — but they sought to reassure investors that they would not abandon cost control.

Costs fell less than 1% to $54.7 billion in 2017, and its goal for 2018 is $53 billion. Analysts question whether revenue growth and tax relief will reduce the incentive to get leaner.

Wealth management assets, deposits and fee income swelled at the San Francisco bank, but interest and noninterest costs rose along with them.

Changing political and economic forces are raising new questions about deployment of tax savings and the cost of deposits, while old concerns about cost-cutting, credit quality and risk-taking persist or return.

The company said it will lay off more than a dozen employees in a move that reflects the current volume of mortgage loan originations.

The company has been working to address an informal agreement with regulators tied to Bank Secrecy Act compliance.

The Tennessee company also set high expectations for revenue opportunities while projecting it will deliver a 15% return on equity in 2019.

Blue Lion Capital believes a heavy focus on mortgages and acquisitions is hurting HomeStreet's financial performance.

Bridge Bancorp, which plans to rebrand is bank as BNB Bank, also plans to boost 2018 profit by $3.3 million by closing 14% of its branches.

The San Francisco company is one of numerous online lenders that are struggling to become profitable.

The online small-business lender, which has been cutting expenses, said it is on track to achieve profitability in the fourth quarter.

Ira Robbins, the CEO-in-waiting at Valley National Bancorp, will have to complete a major acquisition, make the bank more competitive on returns and costs and tackle other difficult tasks after taking over for Gerald Lipkin.

The New Jersey company reported lower third-quarter profit that included severance costs from a two-year program to boost its bottom line.

Profits at the custody bank rose 16%, but it announced a new streamlining program that is expected to generate yearly savings of $250 million by 2020.

Total revenue rose less than 1% to $21.8 billion, but expenses declined 2.5% to $13.1 billion. That computed to the highest profit at Bank of America in six years.

The company had strong gains in construction lending and trust fee income, but its business lending operation had flat results.

Overall net income rose 8% to $4.13 billion as cost control helped overcome shortcomings in global consumer banking profits and bond trading revenue.