Rohit Chopra is named senior advisor to the Democratic Attorneys General Association's working group on consumer protection and affordability; Flagstar Bank adds additional wealth-planning capabilities to its private banking division; Chime promotes three members of its executive leadership team; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Enova International, a nonbank lender in Chicago, plans to gain scale by taking over Grasshopper Bank's national bank charter. The deal already faces skepticism from critics of Enova's high-cost lending model.

The largest bank deal to be announced in 2025 is still on track to close in the first quarter of next year, Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence said. His comments came amid opposition to various aspects of the deal, as well as how it came together and the timeline for closing the transaction.

Charlie Scharf has a mostly optimistic take on Wells' consumer banking prospects entering 2026. But he's more downbeat about the company's once-dominant residential mortgage business.

KeyCorp CEO Chris Gorman said Tuesday that the bank has doubled its buyback plans for the fourth quarter and laid out a new long-term profitability target. The comments came a few days after HoldCo Asset Management issued a scathing report about the bank's performance.

New rules means sellers and servicers will need to have plans demonstrating proper oversight of their artificial intelligence and machine learning practices.

The all-stock acquisition of Mountain Commerce Bancorp in Knoxville marks the Arkansas-based company's first M&A foray since 2022.

JPMorgan's Ben Carpenter will join Evercore as a senior managing director; Wells Fargo appoints Jackie Krese to head syndications within its fund finance group; the SEC is probing Jefferies over its relationship to bankrupt auto parts supplier First Brands Group; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

In a sternly worded letter, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Maxine Waters demanded to know why federal agencies haven't provided more guidance since the one-cent coin was discontinued. They accused the Trump administration of making an "abrupt and unilateral decision" without thinking it through.

Royal Bank of Canada now expects to achieve an annual return on equity of at least 17% by 2027, executives said Wednesday, up one percentage point from the bank's earlier goal.

South Plains Financial agreed to pay $105.1 million in stock to acquire a seven-year-old Houston community bank in its first M&A foray since 2019.

Financial institutions see an opportunity to nab scale after years of tepid dealmaking, but investors are pushing back against such efforts out of concerns about shareholder value.

The Wisconsin-based regional bank plans to acquire American National Corp. in an all-stock transaction valued at $604 million. It is Associated's first acquisition announcement since Andy Harmening became CEO in 2021.

The two regional banks, which are combining in a merger of equals, had previously said they expected to complete the deal sometime in the first quarter of 2026.

The activist investor HoldCo Asset Management alleges that Comerica and Fifth Third used a "flawed" process to arrive at a $10.9 billion merger agreement. On Tuesday, a Delaware judge said she will hold a hearing to determine if the banks omitted material information in their public disclosures.

Saul Van Beurden, Wells Fargo's consumer banking CEO and former head of technology, will lead the way on harnessing artificial intelligence.

Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Fulton Financial said Monday it will pay $243 million in stock for Blue Foundry Bancorp, which has lost more than $20 million since converting to a public company in 2021.

Eight months after Green Dot embarked on a review of its strategic alternatives, the fintech said it will sell its banking operations to CommerceOne Financial and sell its fintech platform to Smith Ventures. Both buyers are linked to Alabama businessman Bill Smith.

HoldCo Asset Management alleged in a court filing that Comerica's directors and Chairman and CEO Curt Farmer breached their fiduciary duties to investors, in part because negotiations for the bank's sale to Fifth Third took just 17 days.

Chris Shelper is now the sole chief banking officer at First Interstate BancSystem; Kristy Fercho joins LERETA's board of directors; Truist Financial launches a business focused on private equity and family office transactions; and more in this week's banking news roundup.