Banking

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.

A bond-market startup is a step closer to reviving crisis-era derivatives that let investors bet on U.S. homeowner defaults.

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.

Appraisal management companies must self-regulate their prices unless they want the government to do it for them.

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

The Virginia bank has agreed to buy Tidewater Mortgage's majority stake in Old Point Mortgage.

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.

The Connecticut bank said a spike in business lending and residential mortgages gave its fourth-quarter earnings a boost.

Fourth-quarter profits at Wintrust Financial in Rosemont, Ill., climbed 65% to $54.6 million from a year earlier, helped largely by acquisitions and increases in mortgage banking and other fee income.

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 Michigan company expects a recently announced mortgage initiative to produce solid growth in 2017.

Moody's Corp. agreed to pay almost $864 million to resolve a multiyear U.S. investigation into credit ratings on subprime mortgage securities, helping to clear the way for the firm to move beyond its crisis-era litigation.

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