The Federal Housing Finance Agency wants to update the dual mission of the Federal Home Loan Banks. Members of the private bank cooperative say their regulator has no authority to redefine the mission.

The Hammond, Louisiana, company, which announced changes to its business strategy, cut 71 jobs and reduced its dividend to 8 cents per share.

The buyer said the all-stock deal to buy The First Bancshares would create a combined bank with $25 billion of assets.

Sandro DiNello, who briefly led New York Community Bancorp amid turmoil earlier this year, is staying on the company's board. But Joseph Otting, the company's recently installed CEO, is taking on the executive chairman position.

The Federal Reserve, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a 30-page guidebook on managing affiliate risks. The report builds on formal guidance issued last year.

In talks with OCC officials, "it became obvious that we would not gain near-term approval given their recent experience with multifamily and CRE positions," FirstSun CEO Neal Arnold says. The companies announced other revisions to their deal, too.

Consolidation has slowed since the pandemic, but UMB's agreement to buy Heartland Financial — the largest deal in three years — is one of several merger announcements in the past two weeks. Talks among other potential buyers and sellers are said to be picking up.

The Philadelphia-based bank's parent company, Republic First Bancshares, had been roiled by a yearslong proxy battle involving activist investors groups and its former CEO.

With high deposit and borrowing costs persisting amid the Federal Reserve's campaign against inflation, lenders face stress on their net interest margins and the potential of troubled loans ticking up.

Houston-based Prosperity Bancshares said it closed its purchase of Lone Star State Bancshares about a year later than initially planned.