Interest rates

Investors Bancorp in Short Hills, N.J., chased deposits in the third quarter in a move that drove up interest expenses and lowered profits.

The accord is the latest development in investigations by governments across the globe into banks’ manipulation of benchmark interest rates.

The president of the St. Louis Fed said that regulators should go back to the pre-Dodd Frank framework for small banks, while warning about changes to the system as fintechs expand their presence.

The embattled company has begun offering cash bonuses to certain customers who open accounts, but at least for now pricey deposit rates would not ensure that customers stick around, executives said Friday.

The Pittsburgh company benefited from loan growth and higher interest rates, though fee income fell and expense rose in the third quarter.

Total revenue rose less than 1% to $21.8 billion, but expenses declined 2.5% to $13.1 billion. That computed to the highest profit at Bank of America in six years.

Facing persistently low loan yields, increased competition and higher regulatory costs, many community banks are at risk of becoming irrelevant unless they rethink their business models.

A slight decline in core deposits in the second quarter stoked worries that tighter liquidity is around the corner. Bankers are exploring responses beyond the typical CD rate special if third-quarter results show the trend is continuing.

With the deadline for a federal-debt-limit renewal nearly a month away, bankers are dreading the prospect of higher funding costs, strained liquidity, weaker commercial loan demand and other ramifications if Washington does not act.

A Fed committee studying Libor’s replacement has dwelled heavily on the potential impact to the derivatives market. Loans may become a bigger part of the conversation later this year, but the panel plans to leave a lot of the specifics up to lenders.

Many banks are adopting an “it takes money to make money” approach, paying more interest on deposits in exchange for loan growth, fee income and customer retention.

As much as $2.5 trillion, or nearly half of bank deposit growth since the crisis, may be attributable to the central bank's quantitative easing. If investors start drawing down on their accounts to buy back assets from the Fed, the trend could dampen liquidity at certain banks, add upward pressure on deposit prices and reshape M&A.

Profits rose 20% at the Texas bank, but net interest margin growth last quarter, and the bank’s margin outlook for the rest of this year, disappointed analysts and investors.

The Cincinnati company reaped the benefit of the latest round of interest rate hikes, as a higher net interest margin and lower costs helped overcome the drop in lending.

Clearing services, assets under custody and administration and other parts of the trust bank's operations rose in the second quarter, all good news as it shifts leadership from Gerald Hassell to former Visa CEO Charlie Scharf.

House Republicans are ramping up their criticism of the Fed for making interest payments to member banks on excess reserves, and may have identified a way to counter claims that the payments are critical to monetary policy.

Net interest margins are on the rise and banks have the green light to return more capital to shareholders, but commercial lending and consumer credit quality remain trouble spots.

The expansion of the Federal Reserve’s portfolio of Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities has a bigger impact on the credit markets than paying banks interest on excess reserves.

Contrary to others’ opinion, interest on excess reserves is part of the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy that serves to reduce volatility and encourage growth.

The German bank posted two consecutive years of losses partly because of misconduct fines tied to the Libor and other scandals.