Jon Prior

Count Citizens Financial’s Bruce Van Saun among those who think interest rate cuts could halt by mid-2020. The key, he says, is to focus on delivering services customers are willing to pay fees for and to skillfully reprice deposits until then.

Banks are taking back more farmland through foreclosure than at any point in the past three years as low crop prices, epic flooding and the Trump administration’s trade spat with China have left many farmers struggling to pay their debts.

Seeking to expand financial services access, tribal officials and some firms want regulators to award Community Reinvestment Act credit to any bank that funds projects in Native American communities.

The company withdrew an earlier bid to become an ILC after regulators identified problems with its application. It is seeking a Nevada bank charter because it wants to add deposit management services and expand into small-business lending.

It’s hard to time the next economic slowdown. But lenders, many with lingering memories of the financial crisis, are taking steps now to limit exposure in commercial real estate, construction and other loan segments.

The bipartisan proposal aims to renew banks' interest in low-income housing tax credits and bring more lower-priced homes to markets that badly need them.

Lenders are turning to the Farm Service Agency to backstop more loans as their Midwestern customers are beset by flooding in addition to the U.S. trade war with China and volatile crop prices. Can the FSA meet the increased demand?

In a presentation Thursday, co-COO Gordon Smith expanded on Jamie Dimon's recent comments about frustrations in the mortgage market, was upbeat about branch profitability and discussed some of the bank's Chase Pay challenges.

Many banks have already scaled back home lending or even left the business. With profit margins shrinking, inventories of homes at crisis levels and competition from nonbanks intensifying, that’s unlikely to change.

Farmers were already taking on more debt to cover losses from falling crop prices. New tariffs and other retaliatory moves could hurt ag borrowers further and lead to loan losses and tighter underwriting.