Lael Brainard will resign from the Federal Reserve after being appointed the new director of President Biden’s National Economic Council. Brainard, who joined the Fed in 2014 and has served as vice chair since May 2022, made the announcement in a late-day press release on Tuesday. "Lael has brought formidable talent and superb results to everything she has done at the Federal Reserve," Chair Jerome Powell said in the release.

Citizens Alliance Bank in Clara City, Minn., has agreed to buy Granite Mountain Bank in Butte, Mont. The $1.2 billion-based unit of Forstrom Bancorp. filed its application with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday to buy the $135 million-asset Granite Mountain. The deal is expected to close later this year. Neil Bolton, Granite Mountain’s president, is expected to lead GMB’s branches when the deal closes. Granite Mountain was named

Trico Bancshares in Chico, Calif., is dealing with a cybersecurity incident. The $9.9 billion-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing that it recently shut down its networked systems after detecting unusual activity. Several of Trico’s internal bank systems are offline, including email, telephones and its customer service/call center. The company said it is working to restore the services as quickly as possible. Trico said it is trying to determine the

United Community Banks in Greenville, S.C., has agreed to buy First Miami Bancorp in South Miami, Fla.   The $24 billion-asset United said in a press release that it will pay about $115.9 million in stock for the $1 billion-asset First Miami. The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, priced First Miami at 162% of its tangible book value.   First Miami shareholders will also receive

Northpointe Bank in Grand Rapids, Mich., is exiting the correspondent lending business. The $4.4 billion-asset bank plans to focus more on retail lending, mortgage warehouse financing and specialty loan servicing, according to HousingWire. Fundings will stop on April 28. “Due to the significant contraction of the overall mortgage industry, we have made the difficult decision to exit the correspondent lending business,” Chuck Williams, the bank’s president and CEO, said in

TD Bank Group in Toronto and First Horizon in Memphis, Tenn., have extended the deadline date for their planned merger. The companies said in a press release that the date had been moved from Feb. 27 to May 27 as they finalize a community benefits plans and wait for regulatory approval. TD had already acknowledged that it hopes to close the deal in late April. “TD and First Horizon are

Ashton Ryan, former CEO of First NBC Bank, has been found guilty of bank fraud charges that contributed to the New Orleans bank’s failure in 2017. A court found Ryan guilty of all 46 counts against him, according to multiple media reports. Ryan had been accused of approving loans for borrowers that he knew couldn’t repay the debt. He was accused of hiding the financial status of the loans and

Northwest Bank in Columbus, Ohio, has formed a commercial finance group. The $14 billion-asset bank said in a press release that the group will focus on business aviation, long-haul trucking, inland and offshore marine financing and general equipment loans to large and midsize companies. The group will operate across the eastern United States. Lee Palm was named the group’s president. He previously served as president of commercial finance at TCF