Wealth management

Banks are experimenting with apps and mobile features that are available to everyone as they search for new ways to connect with potential customers.

Although intended to protect investors from market volatility, a decision by Betterment to temporarily suspend trading the morning after the British referendum has the wealth management industry wondering aloud if the robo-adviser harmed its reputation instead.

Huntington Bancshares named FirstMerit executive Sandra Pierce as senior vice president of its private-client group. Pierce will report to CEO Stephen Steinour and oversee the lender's wealth management, private bank, national settlements and retirement businesses.

The bank is rolling out a new digital advice offering that pairs robo technology with financial advisers, most of whom have the CFP designation.

The $3.2 billion-asset Park Sterling announced this week that it will hire four commercial and industrial bankers from the $2.3 billion-asset CommunityOne Bancorp to help expand its commercial banking team in the Charlotte metropolitan area.

Bank of New York Mellon will pay a $30 million penalty to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in a settlement related to the bank's pricing of foreign-exchange transitions.

JPMorgan Chase can give valued clients a free automated investment service or a checking account that comes with no-cost brokerage trades as part of a future bundle of digital-banking products, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said.

The wealth management technology provider SigFig has raised $40 million in equity and other financing from a number of large financial and venture capital firms so that it can expand its business.

UBS is partnering with the technology developer SigFig to launch a robo platform for its 7,000 advisers, making this one of the most high-profile deals of its kind between a wealth management firm and a tech startup.

Truxton Trust's approach is just one strategy banks are using attract more wealthy clients. But whether they are exploring out-of-market opportunities, staying local or employing robo-advisers, banks all have the same goals: to generate more fee income at a time when margins from lending continue to shrink.