City National Bank of Florida is starting a national capital markets division, Orrstown Financial will close branches in Pennsylvania and Maryland, JPMorgan Chase unit announces in-store biometric payments and more in this week's banking news roundup.

The pace of deal activity in 2024 is ahead of a year earlier, thanks in large part to summer momentum and a spate of all-stock deals. But an early August market rout created a new hurdle for dealmaking in the second half of the year.

Shawn Stone, the new CEO, has more than 25 years of experience in online loan origination, loan servicing operations, credit and capital markets.

A female employee is now suing ICAP and Citigroup, alleging she was subjected to years of unwanted sexual attention and threats by a Citi trader.

The parent company of Fulton Bank announced the creation of three new management roles and promoted existing employees into those jobs. The changes follow the recent hiring of an outsider to be CFO.

The Dallas-based bank is the latest bank to announce plans for a direct lending rollout using nonbank capital.

Jack Poulsen, the former president of Ericson State Bank in Nebraska, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for bank fraud involving loans to a relative that led to the rural bank's collapse.

The resurgence of the syndicated loan market signals a pendulum swing back to greater reliance by debt issuers on traditional bank financing.

New executives were lined up for lenders across the country, including Fremont Bank in California.

Bond traders now see a roughly 60% chance of an emergency quarter-point cut by the Federal Reserve within one week because of the market turmoil.

When banks realize they are unable to continue their operations, a credit union is often a natural partner to consider.

South Carolina's Optus Bank appoints Benita Lefft its new president; B2B marketplace DesignRush releases its hottest states for digital business growth; Morgan Stanley announces Ellen Zentner's newly created team within the bank's investment wing; and more in the weekly banking news roundup.

The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index was up 18% year to date through July, supporting expectations for more banks to use their shares as currency to take out competitors.

Former employees' Minnesota lawsuit accuses the bank of overpaying for prescription drugs, claiming mismanagement of the bank's health plan drove up costs for workers.

Berkshire still holds almost 962 million shares, the filing shows — worth $39.5 billion at Monday's closing price.

Despite the continuing trends of consolidation and limited startup activity, bankers and industry insiders say there is a path forward. But small lenders must evolve with changing technology.

The five largest bank M&A deals had an average deal value of more than $1.2 billion.

The Kansas City, Missouri-based regional bank said it is making progress on its pending purchase of Heartland Financial USA in Denver. The deal is expected to close during the first quarter of 2025.

In this month's roundup of top banking news, how the widespread CrowdStrike outage affected banks of all sizes, JPMorgan Chase's new tech bet for combating rising fraud, what Project 2025 could mean for bankers and more.

The top five banks and thrifts had combined assets of more than $13 trillion as of March 31, 2024.