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.

The top three co-managers have an average dollar volume of more than $5 billion as of the end of June 2023.

Texas State Bankshares has agreed to buy Estrada Hinojosa & Co., one of the nation's biggest municipal underwriting and advisory firms.

The Federal Reserve took action against a small bank in southern Illinois whose exposures to interest rate changes left it with negative equity last year. The enforcement action comes as regulators review their oversight practices following Silicon Valley Bank's failure.

"Florida will not side with economic central planners; we will not adopt policies that threaten personal economic freedom and security," said Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Significantly fewer households expected to be in worse shape in the coming year than was the case last summer, according to a December survey. The results are a positive sign for banks at the start of earnings season.

The legislation would bar firms that receive government contracts from discriminating against firearms companies. Smaller banks have quietly dropped their opposition in hopes of gaining more municipal bond business.

Alpha Ledger Technologies, which had already done so in its home state of Washington, helped its first Oregon issuer record a municipal loan on a blockchain platform.

Bradley Riss is chief commercial officer at Checkout.com, a firm that acts as a payment gateway, acquirer and processor through a single channel, covering cards, passthrough wallets, stored value wallets and alternative payment options such as point of sale credit. It charges a fee based on processing and card payment costs rather than the percentage+ model that most payment API companies charge. The model is designed to make the service customized to different merchants and serve as a base to offer other merchant products.