Blue Foundry Bancorp in Rutherford, N.J., prevailed in its proxy contest with activist investor Larry Seidman. The $2.1 billion-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing that its board nominees – J. Christopher Ely and Robert Goldstein – were elected to three-year terms at this year’s annual meeting. Each received more than 12.4 million votes from shareholders. Seidman and Associates’ candidates – Jennifer Corrou and Raymond Vanaria – fell short of

New York Community Bancorp in Hicksville, N.Y., has agreed to take over Signature Bank’s lease in midtown Manhattan. Empire State Realty Trust, which owns the building, said in a press release that the $123.7 billion-asset New York Community, through its Flagstar Bank unit, will lease roughly 313,000 square feet of office space. The lease is through 2039. Empire State said it agreed to reduce the rent by $3 a square

Citizens Financial Group in Providence, R.I., will pay a $9 million fine to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to address claims its bank failed to investigate credit card billing disputes and fraud claims. The CFPB said in a press release that the $222.3 billion-asset Citizens also settled allegations that the bank failed to consistently refund all charges, including finance charges and fees. "Federal law provides important rights to credit cardholders

Daylight, an LGBTQ+ neobank, is shutting down. Rob Curtis, Daylight’s co-founder and CEO, announced the decision in a blog, stating that the neobank will cease operations on June 30. He pointed to the high interest rate environment made it challenging to build scale to serve the startup’s target market. “We really threw everything that we had at this business,” Curtis wrote “Not to make money (founder salaries are, for the

QED Investors, a venture capital firm in Alexandria, Va., has closed two new funds to invest in fintech firms. QED said in a press release that it has $650 million in capital commitments for Fund VIII, an early stage fund, and $275 million for Growth II, a growth-stage fund. “We are excited, fortunate and privileged to be a steward of our investors’ capital,” Nigel Morris, QED’s managing partner and co-founder,

Gouverneur Bancorp in Gouverneur, N.Y., is planning a second-step conversion to become a fully stock-owned company. The $205 million-asset Gouverneur said in a press release that Cambray Mutual Holding Co. will sell its majority ownership in the company to the public. Depositors with qualifying deposits on Sept. 30 will have first priority subscription rights to obtain stock in the new holding company. Gouverneur expects to gain regulatory approval for the

Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati has acquired Rize Money, an Arlington, Va., embedded payments platform. The $209 billion-asset Fifth Third said in a press release that Rize Money provides payment infrastructure and risk management capabilities to fintechs and other technology companies. The price wasn’t disclosed. Fifth Third said that its embedded payments business is growing at double digits with annual revenue projected to top $130 million this year. The acquisition

JPMorgan Chase in New York projected that net interest income should increase by $3 billion because of its purchase of the failed First Republic Bank. The $3.7 trillion-asset company said in a disclosure in slides for its investor day that it expects to generate $84 billion of net interest income this year. It had previously forecast $81 billion. JPMorgan Chase agreed earlier this month to buy $173 billion of loans,