Truist to sell 20% of insurance brokerage unit for $1.95B

The deal paves the way for future growth and enhances the competitiveness of the bank’s insurance business amid a rapidly consolidating industry, CEO Bill Rogers said.

By Anna Hrushka • Feb. 16, 2023

FTX-exposed Signature Bank’s CEO moves to advisory role

The bank's COO will first take the role of president March 1, and eventually relieve Joseph DePaolo of his CEO title.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Feb. 16, 2023

Explore the Trendline➔

M&A

President Donald Trump’s reelection was predicted to yield loosened regulation. But tariff volatility and economic uncertainty has thrown a wrench into an expected boom in mergers and acquisitions.

By Banking Dive staff

Latino-first neobank Comun raises $4.5M in seed funding

The challenger bank offers traditional financial services, including access to a checking account connected to a physical and virtual debit card, direct deposits for payroll and 24/7 support.

By Rajashree Chakravarty • Feb. 15, 2023

United Community Banks to acquire Miami lender for roughly $116M

First National Bank of South Miami would be the South Carolina bank network's second acquisition of 2023. United Community's purchase of Huntsville, Alabama-based Progress Financial closed in January.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Feb. 15, 2023

Delays in merger review should not become the norm: Fed’s Bowman

The 11 merger applications that received adverse public comments in the first half of 2022 were approved in 197 days, on average, compared with 65 days for those with no public comments, Bowman said.

By Rajashree Chakravarty • Feb. 14, 2023

TD launches credit program for Black entrepreneurs

The Canadian bank’s latest effort to expand credit access to an underserved group will likely be touted to regulators and community groups as it looks to gain support ahead of its planned acquisition of First Horizon.

By Anna Hrushka • Feb. 14, 2023

Key merger metric doesn’t account for online banking, nonbanks: OCC

The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, which measures a bank’s market presence based on deposit share, is becoming a less effective predictor of competition across product lines, the agency’s chief counsel said.

By Anna Hrushka • Feb. 13, 2023

Goldman’s Solomon says he should have started cuts earlier

The admission came at a meeting of the bank's partners last week, where an undercurrent of concern has reportedly led some to consider taking their complaints straight to the board.

By Dan Ennis • Feb. 13, 2023

TD, First Horizon delay merger completion timeline to May

The banks “are fully committed to the merger and continue to make significant progress,” they said, citing ongoing work toward a community benefits plan.

By Dan Ennis • Feb. 10, 2023

Fed unveils 2023 stress test scenarios

The severely adverse scenario boosts the unemployment rate to 10% by the third quarter of 2024, alongside a 38% and 40% plunge in house and commercial real estate prices, respectively.

By Rajashree Chakravarty • Feb. 10, 2023

Goldman’s consumer-business chief is leaving

The bank hired Peeyush Nahar from Uber in 2021 to lead Marcus after two of the consumer bank's top executives left Goldman for Walmart's fintech startup.

By Dan Ennis • Feb. 10, 2023

JPMorgan trims mortgage unit, bets on small-business boom

The bank plans to hire more than 500 small-business bankers over the next two years, bolstering that unit’s headcount by 20%.

By Anna Hrushka • Feb. 9, 2023

Quontic, NYDIG vet aims to bridge ‘translation layer’ between banks, fintechs

Patrick Sells, a former chief innovation officer, wants to speed up the time it takes for banks to find a fintech whose services match their needs.

By Anna Hrushka • Feb. 8, 2023

Wells Fargo to pay $300M to settle auto-loan class action

The bank was aware in 2016 that it charged customers for unnecessary insurance but kept investors in the dark, shareholders claimed, in a case that was set for trial Feb. 27.

By Dan Ennis • Feb. 8, 2023

Fed’s Barr urges banks to ‘eradicate’ discrimination

Barr encouraged banks to analyze their own lending decisions, focus on diversity within their organizations and recognize the "long shadow" of inequality.

By Rajashree Chakravarty • Feb. 8, 2023

Truist cuts dozens in investment banking: report

The layoffs, encompassing 5% of the division, came in late January, Bloomberg reported. Affected employees will get priority consideration for other roles within the company, a bank spokesperson said.

By Dan Ennis • Feb. 8, 2023

Silvergate’s FTX ties probed by DOJ fraud unit: report

The investigation is looking into the bank’s hosting of accounts linked to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. Silvergate has not been accused of wrongdoing, sources told Bloomberg.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Feb. 3, 2023

Houston digital-asset firm LevelField to acquire Chicago’s Burling Bank

Burling will continue to serve as a bank for the trading community, but the combined firm will market itself nationwide to customers seeking to monetize their digital assets.

By Rajashree Chakravarty • Feb. 2, 2023

BankProv no longer offering loans backed by crypto mining rigs

The bank’s decision to end the loans comes as the firm reported $47.9 million in net charge-offs last year, the majority of which it said were loans secured by cryptocurrency mining rigs.

By Anna Hrushka • Feb. 2, 2023

Lawmakers press Silvergate harder, say due diligence failed ‘miserably’

Silvergate CEO Alan Lane’s response to a December letter regarding the bank's FTX ties was “evasive and incomplete,” a bipartisan group of U.S. senators wrote Monday.

By Gabrielle Saulsbery • Feb. 1, 2023

BM Technologies to cut 25% of staff

BM Technologies’ effort to reduce expenses follows the dissolution of the fintech’s planned acquisition of First Sound Bank, a $23 million deal the two parties called off in December.

By Anna Hrushka • Jan. 31, 2023

JPMorgan Chase can’t seem to quit soccer

The bank’s reported interest in underwriting the creation of a media unit for Italy’s Serie A — a deal worth up to $1 billion — comes two years after the dissolution of the JPMorgan-backed European Super League.

By Anna Hrushka • Jan. 27, 2023

Warren asks Congress to help SEC fight crypto fraud

The Democratic senator called SEC Chair Gary Gensler “the right leader to get the job done,” but said regulators need to do more to bolster their scrutiny of the industry.

By Anna Hrushka • Jan. 26, 2023

Former BofA CEO-backed fintech launches to match SMBs with lenders

“What we want to do is to put people that want to lend money together with people who need money. It's not complicated,” said ex-Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl Jr., a founding investor in Foro.

By Anna Hrushka • Jan. 25, 2023

Popular Bank to pay $2.3M over alleged PPP fraud

The subsidiary of Puerto Rico-based Popular Inc. processed and funded six PPP loans in August 2020, totaling roughly $1.1 million, despite having detected signs of potential fraud, the Fed said.

By Anna Hrushka • Jan. 25, 2023