Banking

The transaction will not have a set collateral pool at closing, but a prefunding account will support issued notes during an initial two-month prefunding period.

Slated to close on June 13, Regional Management Issuance will pay notes on the 15 of each month, beginning in July 2024. With a May 31, 2024 initial cut-off date, the transaction has a three-year revolving period ending May 31, 2027.

The latest note sale is within the February securitization's two-year revolving period. It brings the total issuance to $1 billion and the notes have a maturity date of February 15, 2029.

Atlanta Postal Credit Union's bid to acquire Affinity Bank marked the 11th deal overall this year involving a credit union buying a bank, matching the total for all of 2023. Separately, members voted against the merger of two credit unions in Indiana.

SouthState Corp. plans to purchase Independent Bank Group in a $2 billion deal, marking an end to the latter bank's long run of buying companies. Chairman and CEO David Brooks pointed to a challenging interest rate environment and heightened regulatory scrutiny as reasons he decided to sell.

Executives at the Toronto-based bank said last year that they planned to add 150 branches in the United States. But when pressed on Thursday, they could not say how much they'll scale back their ambitions due to investigations over TD's anti-money laundering practices.

West Coast Community Bancorp agreed to acquire 1st Capital Bancorp in an all-stock deal slated to close in the fourth quarter.

At an industry conference, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra said he was open to suggestions on how to increase choice and competition to benefit mortgage lenders and borrowers.

Western Benefits Group initiated contracts with student loan borrowers extracting monthly fees upfront, while claiming to negotiate debt consolidation through a supposed affiliation with the Department of Education, the CFPB said.

The number of borrowers who are at their credit limits is approaching its pre-pandemic level, and the percentage of balances that are sliding into delinquency has hit its highest rate in more than a decade, according to new research. Still, card companies are generally expressing optimism about their credit outlooks.

Yields are expected to range from 6.3% on the AAA notes to 7.4% on the BBB notes, which are priced against the three-month interpolated yield curve, and have a final schedule payment date of May 15, 2029.

Other financial regulators have been examining AI in underwriting because potential biases or otherwise faulty criteria could lead to bad outcomes, while agencies including the Federal Trade Commission are looking into non-financial companies.

Bank stocks are up this year as interest rates have leveled off and there are hopes that pressure on lenders' profits could moderate.

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.

Lendbuzz sells the notes as it juggles mixed performance results from 2023. Originations and revenues saw huge jumps, but so did operating expenses.

After several quarters of slumping investment banking and trading fees, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based company reported a big uptick from that division, which helped compensate for a large decline in net interest income.

The return of the higher-for-longer mantra is a headache for insurance companies and pension plans which, flush with cash, sent demand for bonds soaring this year.