Banking

Credit ratings were cut on the highest number of commercial mortgage-backed securities in "recent memory" last week, according to strategists at Bank of America Corp.

With a week left in its 2023 fiscal year, the Small Business Administration has already approved 12% more 7(a) loans than last year. Larger banks were among the biggest gainers as a result, according to the agency's latest data.

Backed by revenue from point-of-sale unsecured consumer loans, the upsized deal also features expandable notes.

Commercial real estate loans are a growing area of concern for banks. But OceanFirst says its exposure to a troubled shared credit tied to a Manhattan office building isn't a sign of broader problems in its portfolio.

Despite an industrywide rough patch, EverBank still sees promise in the niche business line. The Jacksonville, Florida, company has hired a pair of prominent industry experts to lead a new division tasked with serving investment funds.

The notes benefit from a step-up event concerning class D. If an optional redemption does not occur in the expected redemption date, then the interest rate on the class D notes will increase by 3.0%.

The moves will result in a number of job cuts, though the company doesn't yet have firm targets for how many employees will be affected.

The avoidance of one of the harsher economic scenarios is good news for banks, which are also contending with tighter profit margins and increasing competition for customers. But loan growth and credit quality could be at risk.

Some analysts and investors want the North Carolina bank to make big changes to meet financial targets, which they say aren't being met more than four years after the BB&T-SunTrust merger. The critics will be closely watching a presentation by top Truist executives on Monday.

Pagaya's artificial-intelligence model utilizes more data points in assessing whether a consumer is creditworthy than the handful typically used by traditional auto lenders, so it can find more consumers who would have previously been denied a loan.