Community Financial in Syracuse has made its biggest investment ever in an outside company, taking a $37.4 million equity stake in an insurance provider that focuses on the rental housing market.

Cincinnati-based First Financial scooped up Westfield Bank near Cleveland after Westfield's parent company decided to exit the bank space and focus on its core insurance business.

The Fitzgerald-based Colony Bankcorp agreed to pay $3.5 million to purchase an agency in Monroe, Georgia. The deal signals the potential return of more banks buying insurers than selling them.

The Trump administration's nominee to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Jonathan McKernan, is seen as an institutionalist with a deep knowledge of policy. But whether he keeps the bureau shuttered or rebuilds it is uncertain.

The San Antonio-based insurer and bank has named Juan Andrade as its next CEO. The company's bank has suffered a series of regulatory penalties.

For the third time in five years, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued an enforcement action against the beleaguered bank. It bars USAA from adding new products or loosening its membership criteria without evaluating the risks of getting bigger.

Amid steady customer growth, USAA's banking arm failed to make the investments necessary to satisfy either its regulators or some decades-long customers. Changes in the executive suite haven't fixed the problems.

The growth in mobile banking has lowered barriers to accessing the banking system, but the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s National Survey of the Unbanked and Underbanked released Tuesday reveals that minority households are still disproportionately underserved.

Government, private companies and civil society must continue pushing the kinds of partnerships that put mobile financial technology into the hands of marginalized people around the world.

The Indiana bank said it struck a $40 million cash deal to sell its insurance brokerage to the Hilb Group. It joined a growing number of lenders announcing such transactions.

The Jackson, Mississippi, company will use proceeds from the sale of its Fisher Brown Bottrell Insurance unit to restructure its investment portfolio, moving $1.6 billion of low-yield securities off the balance sheet.

Banks' sales of insurance agencies for eye-popping multiples emerged as one 2023's notable trends. Though the bandwagon shows no sign of slowing, several prominent community banks appear to be holding on to their insurance operations.

Integrating artificial intelligence into the world of banking and finance must be a cooperative effort between the industry and regulators. It's important that the discussions start now.

The Pennsylvania bank has agreed to sell its Exchange Underwriters subsidiary to World Insurance Associates for $30.5 million, saying that the deal will help pad its capital and liquidity.

Synchrony Financial bought Pets Best ahead of a pandemic-driven surge in the pet insurance business. Now it's selling the subsidiary for a $750 million after-tax gain.

Proceeds from the sale provide the bank with "flexibility to evaluate and pursue various strategic initiatives to redeploy capital in support of our core banking business," Evans CEO David Nasca said.

Truist Bank has agreed to pay licensing fees to USAA for the use of mobile-check-deposit technology that USAA says it invented.

Chubb's Banks and the Digital Wallet Race: The Embedded Insurance Strategy looks to gauge how fintechs and banks view embedded insurance.

The card network has agreed to pay USAA licensing fees for the use of mobile deposit capture technology. USAA says it plans to keep trying to get other banks to do the same.

Banks are holding their fintech partners to a higher compliance standard as regulatory scrutiny of banking-as-a-service increases.