Regional banks

It was early on a February morning when Charlotte, North Carolina, Mayor Vi Lyles got the call: BB&T would combine with SunTrust in the largest bank deal in a decade and wanted to place its headquarters in her city.

The Alabama bank’s artificial intelligence system ROSIE pulls information from hundreds of data sources to help employees suggest the best new product or service to offer a customer. It’s a good example of a regional trying to balance competitive pressures and cost control.

Simple math only partly explains why smaller lenders are adding commercial and industrial loans at a faster clip than their larger counterparts.

Big banks’ edge lies in their sizable presence in faster-growing cities, not any unfair structural or regulatory advantages, according to a new report by the Bank Policy Institute, which represents large financial services companies. Community banks beg to differ.

The federal government's more active role in GDP, payroll and other vital statistics produced by the island could hasten its recovery from Hurricane Maria and lift lending and bank valuations at the same time.

The Federal Reserve and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. will hold two public meetings to consider the deal's impact on the U.S. banking system.

The regional bank, which recently agreed to buy SunTrust, is co-developing a game to help elementary-school kids learn to read.

The combined bank would be chartered in North Carolina, with the FDIC serving as its lead federal regulator, N.C. Banking Commissioner Ray Grace says. The merger partners had other options, including the Fed and the OCC.

It took less than six months to hammer out the biggest bank merger in more than a decade, and the price was one of the last things discussed, according to a new federal filing.

The banks have no choice but to pick a new name, marketing experts say, but good luck: The best ones may already be taken, made-up names can sound forced, and any change might nudge more customers to rethink their loyalties.