Expense management

The super-regional bank plans to invest in talent, technology and certain locations in 2025, while keeping its expenses in check, to achieve the promise of the merger that created it, CEO Bill Rogers said.

When the superregional bank sold its insurance business for $10.1 billion, it laid out three ways to use the proceeds: buybacks, a balance sheet repositioning and loan growth. The latter plan is so far proving to be elusive.

The Alabama-based bank also said that its outlook for net interest income is brightening. Several other regional banks have offered similarly upbeat guidance in recent days.

The Minneapolis-based company reported an 18% increase in quarterly net income thanks largely to slimmed-down operating expenses. It also notched modest increases in loans and deposits, while asset quality issues remained manageable.

Two days after the megabank was hit with $136 million of fines, Citi executives said they aren't changing the company's full-year expense guidance. Citi has 30 days to submit a plan to regulators showing that the bank has allocated enough resources to achieve compliance in a timely and sustainable manner.

The beleaguered Los Angeles-based bank reported its strongest quarterly results in more than a year, but executives at its Canadian parent company cautioned that improvements may not be linear.

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The combination of two Pacific Northwest banks was supposed to create a regional powerhouse, but rising deposit costs have stung. CEO Clint Stein says he's "laser-focused" on making Columbia a top performer again.

The global bank is making good on its promise to trim expenses, but its ability to increase revenues at the same time remains unclear, partly because of the relatively weak performance of its wealth management business.

Each spring during the rush of annual meetings, a handful of financial institutions take heat from shareholders who demand new strategies, management shakeups and, at times, even a sale of the company.