Bank channel

U.S. stocks advanced as investors assessed corporate earnings and data showing factory orders fell less than estimated in December.

Add PrivateBancorp to the list of financial institutions that have managed to grow commercial loans organically and are eyeing acquisitions that would improve liquidity in a rising-rate environment.

Mass-affluent investors in their 40s with $100,000 to $500,000 in investable assets constitute an especially promising target group for bank advisors even with direct providers nipping at their heels.

BlackRock and WisdomTree Investment Inc., the firm where former hedge-fund manager Michael Steinhardt is both non- executive chairman and the largest shareholder, will each open ETFs targeting the same hot spot in the market, and at first glance both come with the same price tag.

The Senate is poised to vote on a massive, five-year farm bill this week that includes several provisions important for community bankers and agricultural lenders.

There were a lot of deals last month involving larger community banks, and prices rose nearly 60% from a year earlier. The results will only feed more of those kinds of transactions.

Seeing people come up short with the money needed for a retirement home was sad for one administrative assistant. In her new career she helps such people and produces more than $1 million a year doing it.

This year, small banks are likely to face more scrutiny in terms of consumer products, anti-money laundering measures and compliance management, industry experts say.

There are too many things in M&A that buyers cannot control, including the willingness of the right targets to sell, economic conditions and the likelihood that desire will interfere with good due diligence, two Midwest bankers warn.

As operating costs rise, a growing number of community banks are following the lead of larger rivals by shuttering branches, though analysts hope the pace of closures will accelerate.

Cutting its expenses can get a bank only so far. Sometimes it has to cut someone else's expenses to get where it wants to go.

Bankers feel more optimistic about their business as crisis memories fade, and more open-minded about M&A as deal prices rise, but concerns about compliance challenges and regulators' tough reviews of merger applications are keeping their enthusiasm in check.

President Obama hit on several important issues for bankers in his annual address to Congress Tuesday night, including mortgage finance reform, though as expected financial services issues largely took a backseat to other national concerns, like unemployment and the minimum wage.

Community bank leaders entered 2014 with a rosy view of their companies' prospects, according to a new survey from Abound Resources.

Bank of Nova Scotia's ING Direct unit sees growth potential in wealth management after it completes efforts to add deposits and customers and introduces a credit card, said Peter Aceto, who heads the business.

President Obama is far removed from his harsh criticism of big banks coming out of the crisis, but his State of the Union speech Tuesday night could still provide a crucial glimpse into the administration's thinking on financial policy issues.

One-third of Swiss banks offered amnesty by the U.S. for helping Americans evade taxes have applied for the program, a federal prosecutor stated at a Jan. 25 conference, according to three lawyers.

The largest U.S. home lender agreed to sell more than 40% of its insurance brokerage locations to focus bricks-and-mortar operations on higher-growth regions and bigger clients.

A small California bank's deal to buy another rural lender could give it the scale it needs to knock heads with Wells Fargo and BofA, its execs say.

Citigroup, the U.S. bank that cut unwanted assets 25% last year, should no longer be expected to offer clients unlimited financial services, Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat said.