Commercial lending

Leaders at financial institutions said borrower demand should pick back up, if slowly, following Tuesday's vote.

The Dallas-based bank swung to a loss in the third quarter after reclassifying a large bundle of multifamily loans that it plans to offload under a recently announced strategy pivot.

Recent polling an industry group analyzed points to a range of outcomes that could create opportunities and risks for commercial and residential financing.

The Arkansas bank said CRE is no longer its principal growth driver, yet it is still the bank's most prominent business and a big part of its robust lending activity.

The Buffalo, New York-based bank said its commercial real estate portfolio continued to shrink, but this was more than offset by business and consumer lending.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed measures designed to bolster consumer protection rules. The bills target several issues that have also been percolating at the federal level.

The regional bank has already seen a large reduction in "criticized" loans, and it expects that trend to pick up as lower borrowing costs alleviate the pain in the commercial real estate sector.

The bank faced credit setbacks in the nation's capital and margin pressure this year. But it made a series of hires to reduce risk and diversify its loan portfolio, preparing for a new era of demand as the industry awaits interest rate cuts.

Prophecies about a wave of bank failures caused by sickly CRE loans haven't yet come true. But there are still plenty of caution signs in a saga that will take years to play out.