Bank channel

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.

For the last few years M&A has been marked by buyers' pursuit of loans, but as banks plot the near future, the focus is now on finding deposits to serve as dry powder for the next few years.

In the fourth quarter, the Birmingham, Ala.-based bank generated $48 million in investment management and trust fee income, down $2 million, or 4%, from the previous quarter. Revenue from investment services also fell, dropping 20% to $8 million.

M&T's sidelined purchase of Hudson City has become cautionary tale in a new regulatory environment for acquisitions.

The bank’s wealth and investment services generated $9.9 million in revenue, up 23.4% from the previous quarter and up 27.1% year-over-year. The increase was driven primarily by the bank’s brokerage unit.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the world’s largest custody bank, said fourth-quarter earnings fell 18% because of a loss related to an equity investment.

Perhaps the greatest challenge banks face these days is somehow balancing the desire to grow with the very real need to reduce overhead.

Regulators' attempt to carve out an exemption for small banks from a key part of the Volcker Rule satisfied most institutions that feared getting swallowed up in the Dodd-Frank Act provision, but left others still vulnerable to the regulation and facing significant losses.

Buyers of life insurance still prefer a personal touch, a fact that should cheer advisors at banks and credit unions.

Regions Financial is discontinuing its controversial short-term consumer loan product, the company announced Wednesday.

The firm hired sales directors and other professionals in Chicago, Las Vegas, Boston and Madison, N.J., and opened an office in San Diego.