Commercial lending

The title insurance business of Fidelity National Financial earned $231 million in the fourth quarter, up 60% year over year.

Commercial real estate finance company Walker & Dunlop has acquired Deerwood Real Estate Capital, a commercial mortgage brokerage and advisory firm.

The New York company may struggle with profitability as it decides whether to find a new buyer.

Profits at Astoria Financial in Lake Success, N.Y., fell along with net interest income in the fourth quarter.

Umpqua Holdings in Portland, Ore., reported an increase in profits, as a spike in fees compensated for lower interest income.

The phrase "it is what it is" came up several times as CEO Joseph Ficalora addressed analysts' questions about nixing plans to buy Astoria and the challenges of getting another deal done.

A $90 billion wave of maturing commercial mortgages, leftover debt from the 2007 lending boom, is laying bare the weak links in the U.S. real estate market.

Increases in commercial real estate, C&I and municipal and state loans boosted fourth-quarter profit at the $13 billion-asset Trustmark.

The company wants a big deal to help push it over $50 billion of assets, at which point it will be considered systematically important.

Big increases in construction and commercial real estate lending boosted revenue at the Kansas City, Mo., company.

The Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization has extended the comment period on its proposed standard regarding the maintenance and sharing of commercial and multifamily rent-roll information.

Net income was also aided by a sharp drop in the provision for credit losses as chargeoffs on energy loans continued to decline.

Expanded lending across a broad range of categories and extremely low unemployment in Hawaii pushed up the Honolulu bank's quarterly profit.

Associated Banc-Corp in Green Bay, Wis., reported a sharp increase in profits on a mix of higher fee income and lower credit costs.

Quarterly profit fell at SunTrust Banks in Atlanta as noninterest expense rose 8.4% and its loan-loss provision increased.

Commercial real estate loan growth and the Hudson City acquisition fueled fourth-quarter profit growth at M&T Bank in Buffalo, N.Y.

Three midsize banks projected increases in loans this year in the latest round of earnings discussions, but their levels of optimism varied, and their commercial lending strategies in some cases conflicted.

The company sued the former director over the debt, which disqualified him from board service.

The Columbus, Ga., bank reported higher fourth-quarter profit on growth in business loans and mortgage banking.

Banks have started reconsidering how much they are willing to pay for low-income housing tax credits as expectations of a Trump tax cut surge, slowing down some projects already and threatening developers with heavier financing burdens.