Financial institutions

At a Senate Banking subcommittee meeting, Republican and Democratic lawmakers both promoted the mission of community development financial institutions and warned of upcoming threats to their funding and proposals to revamp the CDFI certification process.

Despite regulatory efforts, applications for traditional new banks often now require lengthier review periods for approval than in the last several decades. Here are some key ways to lighten this burden.

The National Credit Union Administration is addressing two of the main reasons why new institutions aren't being formed — making it easier for the organizers to raise the required capital and easing the burden of the application process, says Todd Harper, the agency's chairman.

The plan calls for the formation of Orca Bank in Bellingham, Washington. It would become a subsidiary of Savi, whose CEO would assume the same role at the bank.

Treasury's plan to overhaul the certification process for community development financial institutions will benefit the communities served by those institutions.

Beach Cities Commercial Bank is set to open in Southern California next week. Rising interest rates and consolidation in recent decades have created more opportunities for investors to form new banks, experts said.

Two former top bank regulators argue that efforts to eliminate risk from the business of banking is a fool's errand, and say it is time to refocus banks' managers and boards on the business of managing it.

A pair of mutual banks in Maryland and New York that sold minority stakes more than a decade ago are pursuing second-step offerings that will result in both becoming fully stock-traded companies.

In recent years, stress tests have not accounted for some very clear real-world risks. This must change immediately.