Performance reports

Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati on Thursday reported a big spike in profits, after selling shares in the payment processor Vantiv.

BB&T in Winston-Salem, N.C., posted lower quarterly results that largely reflected lower fee income and costs tied to recent acquisitions.

Signature Bank in New York reported a record profit in the fourth quarter as strong loan growth more than offset continuing weakness in its portfolio of taxi medallion loans.

Commerce Bancshares in Kansas City, Mo., reported a small rise in fourth-quarter profit, on growth in business and commercial construction loans.

The San Francisco bank's cross-selling ratio has begun to sputter, raising questions about whether its aggressive sales approach is starting to chase off too many customers. The problem is more than Wells Fargo's, too, since so many banks have sought to imitate its strategy for selling each customer multiple products.

United Community Banks in Blairsville, Ga., reported little change in its fourth-quarter profit, as costs from its acquisition of Palmetto Bancshares ate into lending revenue and fee income.

Unfavorable equity markets and lower transaction volumes led Northern Trust Corp. to report a 2% drop in fourth-quarter profit.

Fulton Financial in Lancaster, Pa., reported a slight increase in its fourth-quarter profit as strong fee-income growth helped to offset a decline in its net interest margin.

Washington Federal in Seattle said higher technology expenses related to a system conversion contributed to a lower profit in its 2016 fiscal first quarter.

Management has also been allocating more resources to other markets to add loans and boost fee income in businesses such as card services and wealth management. Such moves are designed to offset fallout from an energy book that shrunk by 14% last year.

Legal costs and a tax credit impairment during the fourth quarter at First Horizon National in Memphis, Tenn., offset loan growth and a rise in fee income.

Synovus Financial in Columbus, Ga., reported a higher fourth-quarter profit on stronger interest and fee income.

Costs associated with M&T Bank's successful but prolonged effort to buy Hudson City Bancorp pushed the Buffalo, N.Y., company's fourth-quarter profit lower.

A number of community banks have gotten into government-backed small-business lending by buying firms or poaching talent. While the business seems lucrative now, there are concerns that too many banks may be jumping into the pool.

Labor-intensive cross-marketing programs, which were beyond the scope of small marketing departments, are suddenly feasible thanks to automation.

Bank of America Corp., the second-biggest U.S. lender, said profit rose 9.4 percent on gains in fees and declines in expenses.

Executives of Wells Fargo, especially CEO John Stumpf, have repeatedly insisted that the economy (and their bank) will be fine despite the collapse in oil prices. But now they are acknowledging efforts to think about what happens if they are wrong.

Judging from the questions executives fielded about everything from the slowdown in China to the bank's energy exposure to the potential for another 2008-style crisis, worries are running high.

Citigroup, which pioneered the era of global megabanks before almost collapsing in the financial crisis, just slid behind Wells Fargo to rank as the nation's fourth-biggest lender.

PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh reported lower fourth-quarter profits on a decline in fees related to residential mortgages and deposit accounts.