Performance reports

PNC Financial Services Group reported third-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as the lender cut costs to counter a decline in revenue.

Bank of America posted third-quarter profit of $4.51 billion as expenses declined.

Results from the largest U.S. bank, and the first major player to report on its latest quarter, showed widespread revenue strains and only added to questions about the industry's growth prospects in the near future.

Security Bancorp prefers the local feel of having six banks in western Tennessee, even if it leads to more regulatory burden.

Who cares what time a bank announces its quarterly earnings? A lot of people, it turns out, from investors who bet large on the data to bankers who use crafty scheduling tactics to announce before their competitors.

The Delaware company reported nominal profit in the second quarter as it attempted to sell off its commercial loans and address concerns listed in a year-old regulatory order.

Independence Bancshares in South Carolina last week fired its CEO and gave up its dreams of shaking up the payments world after losing nearly $9 million on the effort. Many details are still unknown, but it looks like a case study for what can go wrong when community banks invest in technology.

Capital One Financial has allowed shareholders to nominate candidates to the company’s board of directors, joining a spate of large U.S. companies moving to open access to proxy ballots.

Get a bunch of community bankers together and they start sharing efficiency ratios like golf scores. There seem to be more bogeys than holes in one these days in the course of cost-cutting.

A number of New York banks are stepping away from medallion lending as delinquencies rise and competition for fares intensifies.

Cardinal Financial made a big push into wealth management a decade ago. Today, it remains an inconsistent business, though management is optimistic about the future.

While banks have significantly decreased their problem assets from their 2010 peak, sour credits remain much higher than in 2006. A number of banks have been reluctant to sell these assets because of low interest rates and a struggle to find better investments.

Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan gets to keep his chairman's title but still faces a major capital plan deadline in just a week and then will have to sort through the fallout from what has been a challenging third quarter for the entire industry.

A number of state banking associations held their annual conferences in posh out-of-state locations this year as executives show a greater willingness to make travel plans.

Bank executives and outside experts finger technology as the area most in need of improvement when it comes to vetting financial institutions' ability to withstand the next bit economic shock.

Two banks with labor ties — Amalgamated Bank of Chicago and United Business Bank in Oakland — are beginning to aggressively court commercial clients.

Activity at credit unions has been on the rise since the Bank Transfer Day movement in November 2011. It remains to be seen, however, if credit unions can succeed at keeping many of those relationships.

The third quarter ends in two weeks, and top executives at Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and two regional banks are raising concerns about cost pressures, impediments to revenue growth and heightened lending risks.

A Federal Reserve decision is expected soon on M&T's long-delayed application to buy Hudson City Bancorp. M&T would still get strategic benefits it sought, but Hudson City has shrunk and become less profitable since it agreed to sell three years ago, and the cost of the deal has risen.

It remains unclear if a new platform from the Chicago Board Options Exchange will provide enough incentives and safeguards to prompt community banks to switch from using the existing federal funds system.