Leader Bank in Arlington, Mass., has hired a former First Republic Bank executive to build a startup banking division.   The $4 billion-asset bank hired Vitaliy Schafer as director or venture capital, private equity and technology banking to oversee a push for tech and VC clients. Schafer was a managing director at First Republic, which failed in April.   “This is something we’ve been wanting to do for about five

Ashton Ryan Jr., former CEO of the failed First NBC Bank, was sentenced to serve 14 years in prison after being convicted of dozens of counts of bank fraud, conspiracy and related charges. Ryan, who was found guilty of 46 charges in February, will also pay more than $214 million in restitution, according to NOLA.com. While expected to surrender to authorities on Nov. 6, Ryan’s lawyer said he plans to

First Western Bank & Trust in Minot, N.D., has applied to acquire an insurance agency in Lismore, Minn.   The $2 billion-asset First Western submitted an application on Sept. 1 with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. to buy Lismore State Agency.   The deal is structured as a purchase and assumption agreement.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plans to market $33 billion of commercial real estate loans that were held by the failed Signature Bank in New York. The loans, which the FDIC retained after regulators closed Signature in March, are largely secured by apartments in the New York area.  The FDIC said it is setting up joint ventures to market about $15 billion of loans secured by rent-stabilized or rent-controlled units

Gardner Bancshares in Lenexa, Kan., is working through a cease-and-desist order from the Federal Reserve. The order, which followed an October 2022 examination, requires the company and its $100 million-asset Small Business Bank to address issues that include staffing, internal controls, credit risk management, and information security. The bank must also improve controls tied to anti-money laundering regulations and the Bank Secrecy Act. Gardner and its bank agreed to seek regulatory

Members of St. Lawrence Federal Credit Union have rejected the Ogdensburg, N.Y., credit union’s proposed merger with SeaComm Federal Credit Union in Massena, N.Y. The $806 million-asset SeaComm agreed in March to absorb the $234 million-asset St. Lawrence FCU. But St. Lawrence’s members voted against the combination by a 2-to-1 margin. “We are disappointed with the final outcome of the membership vote,” Scott Wilson, SeaComm’s president and CEO, said in

The organizers of the proposed Nova Bank in Huntsville, Ala., have surpassed their capital-raising goal. The proposed de novo made the announcement on its LinkedIn page. “To all our investors, we can’t thank you enough for your support and confidence in us!” the group said. The group originally applied with regulators in August 2021 but withdrew the application last spring. A new application was submitted in September 2022, with a

Add 1895 Bancorp of Wisconsin in Greenfield to the list of banks repositioning their balance sheets. The $553 million-asset company said in a press release that it sold $21.4 million of securities for an after-tax loss of $1.4 million. Proceeds contributed to the purchase of about $21.4 million of government-sponsored mortgage-backed securities. The transactions should increase earnings by about $700,000 annually, meaning the loss should be recouped in about two