Bank channel

As consumers' behavior changes, banks are adapting with them.

The bank's Private Client Reserve unit hired new wealth management professionals in Washington State, Denver, Kansas City and Naples, Fla.

Banks of all sizes are struggling to increase the revenues and profits that they can eke out of their retail operations - while trying to elbow their competitors out of the same turf. To do so, bankers need to face some hard truths about their branches, technology and M&A ambitions.

The Charlotte, N.C., bank offers a model for other community banks that have expanded quickly in recent years but face a pricier M&A market: focus on smaller deals that provide additional liquidity and plug geographic holes.

The new relationship will allow the Huntsville, Ala.-based credit union to expand its current investment services program.

Young Americans not only have little loyalty to banks, but many also believe that traditional financial institutions are on their way to irrelevance, a new survey shows.

Unity Bank, a subsidiary of Unity Bancorp, has opened a new division that will offer a wide range of investment products and services aimed at helping customers to grow and preserve wealth.

New skills and new training are necessary for advisors to succeed in today's market, but banks and broker-dealers have not made it a top priority.

Despite some bright spots, the bank channel has some surprising areas in need of improvement, according survey findings unveiled at the annual review-and-preview at this week's BISA conference.

Upstate New York banker John Buhrmaster discusses the regulatory challenges small banks face, his issues with big banks and why smaller banks need to take a serious look at charging more for the services they offer.

Now that financial regulators have finalized rules on social media interaction, firms like ING are, slowly and cautiously, beginning to let advisors experiment with social networks.

Bank executives expect to boost revenue from their wealth management practices 25% or more in the next five years, with some anticipating a 35% contribution to total bank revenue.

There are a number of good sessions scheduled for the BISA conference this week. Here are a few that piqued our interest.

Bankers say intensifying competition from larger players is prompting more discussion about the need to gain scale — most likely through consolidation.

Five years after Citigroup became a symbol of all that was wrong with big banks, the country's third-largest bank appears to be bracing for a new round of scrutiny into its ethics.

Detroit agreed to pay $77.6 million to UBS and Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit to end interest-rate swaps that have cost taxpayers more than $200 million since 2009, according to a court filing in the city's bankruptcy.

In 2013, they produced an average of $381,411 in revenue for their financial institutions, up 31% from the previous year.

A $300 million settlement by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and insurers with homeowners who accused the bank of taking kickbacks in exchange for sticking them with overpriced insurance policies was approved by a judge.

U.S. regional banks see favorable growth prospects in Canada. Its limited number of banks seems to invite competition, and its regulatory and economic climates are considered more favorable than those in the U.S.

After watching people struggle to afford a nice retirement hone, Annette Martin decided to pursue a second career to help.