Fintech

Visa, Mastercard, SAP, Circle and many other financial firms are launching digital card accounts with an emphasis on B2B clients.

Once the pace of private equity-backed sales of middle-market companies picks up, the Rhode Island-based bank expects to benefit. CEO Bruce Van Saun says that Citizens' recent expansions in private banking and wealth management will provide opportunities to cross-sell to corporate clients.

Top industry executives said this week that price increases are abating, even if they haven't yet fully abated. Their remarks reflect increased confidence that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady — or perhaps even cut them — in the first half of 2024.

The Ohio-based regional bank has laid out an ambitious expansion blueprint, including new health care asset-based lending, a Native American financial services unit and a push into commercial banking in North Carolina and South Carolina.

Too few lenders are underwriting unsecured consumer debt, which could help borrowers pay down credit card balances with little risk to lenders.

The nation's largest bank has already completed many of the branch closings that can boost its earnings, leaving it with "less and less accretive opportunities to consolidate," according to a top executive.

The North Carolina-based bank is considering the idea of selling a portion of its securities portfolio as a way to build capital, CEO Bill Rogers said Tuesday. At the end of the third quarter, Truist's securities were worth about 20% less than what the company paid for them.

Los Angeles-based City National Bank recorded a $247 million loss during a tumultuous final quarter of its fiscal year. But executives at the bank's Canadian parent company say they expect a return to profitability in the first quarter.

Goldman Sachs, which has been trying to jettison its struggling credit card business, now has a potential way out of its partnership with Apple.

The BSBY interest rate benchmark was originally envisioned as a successor to the once-ubiquitous Libor rate. But it failed to gain much traction, and Bloomberg now plans to shut it down next year.