Fee income

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s Q3 Quarterly Banking Profile report highlighted net bank income falling 8.6%, but also showed slow delinquency growth in commercial real estate and core income metrics improving across the banking sector.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will take a bite out of bank profits in 2024 by issuing final rules on overdraft and credit card late fees, among other major rulemakings.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau found that more consumers are being charged late fees, while determining that the average cardholder carried $5,288 in total credit card debt last year.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra said the CFPB is enforcing a long-dormant provision of Dodd-Frank in its advisory opinion prohibiting banks from charging fees to obtain basic account information.

The Rhode Island bank endured a sharp decline in fee income from home loans, which had spiked earlier in the pandemic. But CEO Bruce Van Saun says the company is well positioned as the refinancing boom fades and the home purchase market becomes more important.

Acquiring AmeriHome would provide the fee revenue the Phoenix company seeks to compensate for low interest rates and tepid commercial loan demand. The deal also would allow it to reinvest billions of dollars of excess liquidity.

Amerant Mortgage includes several former bankers from City National Bank of Florida in Miami.

Noninterest income has bolstered profits this year. But its growth is expected to slow over the next two years, making for a gloomy earnings outlook unless vaccine distributions and the economic recovery are relatively swift.

Strong mortgage and capital markets activity helped offset credit costs and one-time items in the third quarter at Citizens Financial Group. In a period of low rates, CEO Bruce Van Saun says he’d like to buy more fee-generating businesses.

Bankers say they understand the need for an extraordinary government response to the coronavirus outbreak, but worry that even slashing interest rates won’t stimulate demand.