Wealth management

The scramble to cut costs at State Street continues as the custody bank seeks to make up for declining fees and add revenue-generating businesses.

The Fed's December interest rate hike helped PrivateBancorp's first-quarter profit, as yields rose on its variable-rate loans.

Bank of New York Mellon, the custody bank under pressure from activist investors to improve results, reported a 5% increase in first-quarter profit as it cut expenses and benefited from higher interest rates in the U.S.

Wells Fargo has hired Kristi Mitchem, formerly of State Street, to be the president and chief executive of its asset management division.

An improvement in fees collected for trust and investment services at Northern Trust contributed to an increase in first-quarter profit.

Ally Financial has launched a mobile app that uses geolocation to caution smartphone-carrying customers when they are arriving at stores where they overspend.

Profits soared at First Republic Bank in San Francisco thanks to lending growth in several categories and its expansion in wealth management.

Banks are slowly warming up to the idea of open APIs, essentially tools that allow banks to easily connect with others, but BBVA's Shamir Karkal says that they will likely also push banks to modernize their core systems.

Boston Private Financial Holdings appointed its bank president, George Schwartz, to the newly created position of chief executive of its private banking group.

Wells Fargo's chief financial officer John Shrewsberry has been named to Yale University's committee overseeing its $25.6 billion endowment. Shrewsberry has an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

The custody bank's $485 million purchase of GE Asset Management is consistent with its plan to invest in higher-growth, higher-return business lines. But analysts say the deal won't move the needle enough to alleviate short-term pressure on top-line growth.

Banc of California in Irvine has agreed to sell its wholly owned investment adviser subsidiary, The Palisades Group.

The deal to buy TradeKing would allow the online-only bank to offer wealth-building products to its roughly 1.1 million depositors. The additional low-cost deposits could also help fund loan growth as it looks to expand beyond auto lending and into mortgages and credit cards.

Wealth management units have been a surefire source of fees for banks over the last few years, as low rates dragged down spread income. But a policy change will likely be a crucial test to the business model.

Wealth management revenue has been a bright spot on bank earnings for the last few years, but regulatory changes to the way advisers can charge for their services will likely dramatically change the business.

Ally Financial announced Tuesday that it had agreed to buy the online brokerage firm TradeKing Group for approximately $275 million. TradeKing, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., has roughly $4.5 billion in client assets.

More than half of all U.S. households have suffered a "financial shock" in the past five years. Some say mobile apps could help users brace for — and recover from — such setbacks.

HarborOne Bank is proving that financial education really can improve the bottom line.

State Street has agreed to buy General Electric's asset management unit for as much as $485 million.

Less than a year after investing in MX Technologies, USAA has partnered with the startup to provide personal financial management tools to its 11.4 million members.