News Topic: Connecticut

The Bridgeport, Conn., company is developing a specialty in banking technology businesses. Like so many other small regionals with ambitious growth plans, it faces a tricky balancing act: how to take creative risks without getting in over its head. ... Read full article

It started with financial literacy classes, but now Chelsea Groton Bank in Connecticut is offering crafts and other so-called lifestyle courses, all in an effort to connect with the public and drive traffic to its branches. ... Read full article

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is considering a plan to have banks break out charge-offs and recoveries on a year-by-year basis. Bankers fear new systems would be needed to comply. ... Read full article

The Connecticut company also reported modest loan growth and a greatly improved net interest margin. ... Read full article

Larger community banks are favoring bigger targets — or relying more on organic growth — to expand. ... Read full article

Once a hotbed of activity, the region has reported the fewest bank mergers since the financial crisis. ... Read full article

Vend Lease, which is based in Baltimore, focuses on suppliers and vendors in the hospitality industry. ... Read full article

PeoplesBancorp in Holyoke, Mass., has agreed to buy First Suffield Financial in Connecticut for $60 million. ... Read full article

The Connecticut company will have nearly $48 billion in assets after it buys First Connecticut Bancorp. ... Read full article

The company will snag its first branches in three towns in Connecticut and Rhode Island after buying locations from Webster Financial. ... Read full article

James Smith said his late enrollment in the state’s Republican Party meant he would be ineligible to be a candidate in its August primary and that he did not want to disrupt the nomination process. ... Read full article

James Smith said he would decide soon whether he’ll seek the Republican nomination for governor. He said he was inspired partly by his recent work on a commission tasked with recommending fixes to the state’s fiscal and economic problems. ... Read full article

Since stepping down as CEO of Webster Bank last month, James Smith has spent much of his time co-chairing a panel tasked with solving his home state’s fiscal and economic woes. Banks, and perhaps even fintechs, could be a part of its comeback story, he ... Read full article

Patriot National in Connecticut planned to build a regional small-business lending operation on its own — until it had a chance to buy a national platform. ... Read full article

Patriot National in Connecticut would become the latest community bank to ramp up small-business lending with its $81 million deal to acquire Hana Financial's much larger SBA lending unit. ... Read full article

Here's a look at the 12 housing markets with the largest percentages of mortgages over $500,000 — the new threshold House Republicans have proposed for the mortgage interest deduction in their tax plan. ... Read full article

The Connecticut company, which is nearing the threshold to become a systemically important financial institution, has bought three businesses in the past year. ... Read full article

A double-digit increase in the size of the Connecticut company's commercial book factored heavily into its improved second-quarter results. ... Read full article