Fixed income

Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group has agreed to buy a majority stake in Virginia Community Bank in a rare instance of a nondepository mortgage company buying a bank, rather than the reverse.

Now that the Federal Reserve has raised short-term rates four times in the past 18 months, all eyes are on deposit costs as banks seek to keep pricing low and fatten margins. But that effort is complicated by the fact that banks must prepare for the unwinding of the Fed's balance sheet and consumers' rapid adoption of mobile deposits.

In an echo of the rescue deals of 2007 and 2008, New Residential's CEO framed the transaction as something undertaken to benefit the entire industry.

Growth outside of its residential mortgage business contributed to Flagstar Bank beating first-quarter earnings estimates, company executives said.

B of A, JPMorgan and Citi beat trading estimates unlike Goldman Sachs, but the investment bank still doubled its quarterly profits.

Bankers, directors and other large investors are unloading millions of shares as bank stocks stay close to all-time highs.

Oaktree and Thomas H. Lee will still have large positions in the company after the planned sales.

The French company will still have a majority stake after selling 25 million shares.