Commercial lending

The Trump administration's initial tax plan may be short on details, but a bipartisan bill offers some very specific relief for the commercial real estate industry.

Growth outside of its residential mortgage business contributed to Flagstar Bank beating first-quarter earnings estimates, company executives said.

Strong gains in low-cost health savings account balances helped fuel loan growth at the Waterbury, Conn., company.

Executives at BB&T, KeyCorp and Citizens are milking commercial lending niches and balancing cost control with new investments while waiting for more rate hikes to fatten margins.

Earnings per share fell a nickel short of estimates due in part to lower-than-expected revenue from the origination and sale of mortgages.

The New York bank has rapidly expanded its commercial real estate lending over the last several years, but now it is ready to slow down a bit and add more commercial and industrial loans to the mix.

Texas Capital Bancshares sharply reduced the size of its loan-loss provision as credit quality improved in its energy loan book. That helped the Dallas bank post a 77% rise in first-quarter profit.

The Mississippi company's first-quarter earnings rose 60% from a year earlier. Its results from last year were weighed down by a settlement with regulators.

The hand-wringing over business lending has overshadowed the fact that consumer lending — particularly for regional banks — has become a strong and steady engine of growth.

Bank of America's year-over-year loan growth was slow, but parts of its commercial and U.S. consumer businesses were strong, prompting optimism from the CEO in the face of lackluster numbers across banking so far this earnings season.