Bank channel

The Federal Reserve Board issued three enforcement actions against community banks and their holding companies on Thursday.

First Federal Lakewood in Ohio is like a lot of banks these days: It wants more fee income but doesn't have a lot of extra capital to invest to get it.

Nearly two years after hiring CEO Paul Perrault, known for his acquisitiveness, the capital-heavy Brookline announced Wednesday that it would buy another Massachusetts company, First Ipswich Bancorp, for $19.7 million.

Bank loans could suffer if Bush-era tax cuts are repealed, potentially slowing an economic recovery, Market Research Insight’s Geller warns.

Two of the banking industry's biggest turnaround challenges fell further behind the pack in the 3Q, and it's now up to their rookie CEOs to turn on the afterburners.

Capitol Hill’s efforts to fix the financial system will merely burden already cash-strapped banks, their officers complain.

Some large banks sold fewer mortgages to the government housing agencies last quarter, using them to manage interest rate risk and to slow the contraction of loans.

Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Vikram Pandit offered up a scathing review Monday of Basel III, saying the new rules do nothing to reduce pro-cyclicality or to level the playing field among different countries and differently regulated financial institutions.

Increased bank-customer interest in variable products indicates a positive shift in their aversion to market exposure.

Seven banks failed Friday, bringing the total number of failures this year to within one of the number of failures in all of 2009. So far 139 banks have failed in 2010. Friday's failures are expected to cost the deposit insurance fund a collective $478 million.

President Obama's appointment of Elizabeth Warren as the top administration official in charge of setting up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau avoided a probable Senate confirmation battle but continues to raise doubts about her authority.

Despite a perceived improvement in banks’ stability, small-business owners rate them even lower than last year.

The Cincinnati company, which has been squeezing better recovery values than expected from a wide array of bad credits, surprised analysts Thursday by announcing it had sold $228 million of residential mortgage loans and made $961 million of commercial loans available for sale late in the third quarter.

Executives at several regional banks said this week that they have done what they could to resolve credit losses and now must wait on the economy before making more progress.

Profits are 17% below $187.9 million in the third quarter.

A near-record of mortgage refinancings and expense control were essential to Wells Fargo in grinding out $3.3 billion in profit as loan demand sputtered again.

The needle didn't move much, but the uptick in commercial loan demand at U.S. Bancorp and other big lenders provides at least a thread of hope for the return of asset growth.

Low rates are causing investors to cash out of short-term CDs when they mature; banks respond by adding ever more short-term CDs.

With more time to rebuild its coffers and failed-bank losses easing, the FDIC Tuesday abandoned an across-the-board premium hike slated to go into effect next year.

The third-quarter performance of small and midsize banks in California—long a bellwether for the nation's community institutions—has given rise to some optimism.