Jim Dobbs

The Columbus, Georgia, bank is selling a $1.3 billion portfolio as part of a plan to pay off higher-cost funding. Though there are rising concerns about the office sector, Synovus said the loans it's offloading have pristine credit quality.

The average credit union member had saved $286 less in March compared to a year earlier. That was the largest per-member drop in credit union history, fueled by rising costs of living and more aggressive competition.

The American Bankers Association's Economic Advisory Committee said access to loans is likely to further soften, while defaults and credit losses could increase in the second half of the year.

The beleaguered bank said it is selling 74 loans totaling about $2.6 billion to a subsidiary of Kennedy-Wilson Holdings. The move is part of a plan to pursue strategic asset sales, trim expenses and shore up its balance sheet.

The companies cited an inability to secure regulatory approvals after postponing multiple times a closing that had been originally expected last fall.

The American Bankers Association's latest Credit Conditions Index points to a drop in lending and a rise in loan delinquencies through the second and third quarters.

Rising vacancy levels, soaring interest rates and weaknesses exposed by recent bank failures have analysts and investors worried about banks' outsized exposure to high-rise office, apartment and retail properties.

Lenders had started tightening as early as the fourth quarter in anticipation of a possible recession. Now, the banking crisis is driving community and regional banks in particular to hit the brakes harder, stoking renewed recessions fears.

With the acquisitions of CIT Group and a large portion of the failed Silicon Valley Bank, the North Carolina company has doubled in size for the second time in a little more than a year and joined the class of super regionals.

The company agreed to pay $27.2 million in restitution to shareholders and revised its 2022 earnings to show a steep loss. The plea agreement with the Department of Justice was tied to Sterling's now defunct low-documentation mortgage program.