Companies are dropping sustainability-linked loans as they face a tougher regulatory environment.

When combined, the top five states have roughly 23.9 million households classified as unbanked according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The Columbus, Ohio-based bank said its all-stock bid for Penns Woods Bancorp would expand its footprint and give it $1.7 billion of deposits and $1.9 billion of loans.

The bank ends the year with a substantially different profile from early 2024, which brought new leadership, a significant reduction to its mortgage operations and a corporate rebrand.

The combination would create a Northeast regional bank with nearly $24 billion of assets. It would rank as the eighth-largest bank in the Boston metropolitan area by deposit market share.

Affirm partners with Sixth Street to sell its buy now/pay later loans to the investment firm; Associated Banc-Corp promotes Steven Zandpour to deputy head of consumer and business banking; Visa Direct speeds up its money transfers; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Banks will feel the fallout from a court's decision to strike down a Nasdaq rule that would have mandated more disclosure about the racial and gender composition of corporate boards.

Upbound currently focuses on lease-to-own products. Brigit will help it expand its offerings, but the fintech faced an FTC complaint last year.

The bank has hired an advisory firm to assess a potential sale, a capital raise or a strategic partnership after a prior merger fell through.

Workers in the bank's conduct management intake group joined colleagues at 23 Wells Fargo branches in approving a union.

Institutions like BMO Financial Group and Bank of Nova Scotia saw earnings bogged down by increased loan loss provisions and higher tax rates.

The merger pairs the fintech's consumer lending platform with Gen Digital's identity-protection services, such as Norton, LifeLock and ReputationDefender.

From Donald Trump to Gunjan Kedia, Jerome Powell to Jamie Dimon, here are the people who will impact the industry this year (including Taylor Swift).

A slower rate of price increases would boost the likelihood of an interest-rate cut that could expand loan demand and lower banks' deposit costs. A higher pace of inflation, however, could derail those catalysts.

The cash-and-stock bid for Enterprise Bancorp is expected to close in the second half of 2025. In connection with the deal, Independent plans to raise about $250 million in subordinated debt.

The Federal Reserve's interest-rate cut came too late in the third quarter for banks to capitalize on. Leaders say the fourth quarter will yield better growth.

The industry hopes that the bigger hurdles to bank mergers under President Biden will fade in the new administration. But populist opposition to consolidation in the tech sector could spill over into banking.

Unity Bank in Clinton, NJ, now offers EV charging stations in a collaboration with Encore Energy Group; fintech Beneficient announced its agreement to acquire Puerto Rico-based Mercantile Bank; Trump named payments exec Jared Isaacman to run NASA; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

The U.S. bank was unable to fully sell a block of shares in Australia's Goodman Group it had underwritten for China's sovereign wealth fund.

The building at 420 Montgomery St. could be put on the market as soon as this month, the Wall Street Journal reported.