Some banks hope to use M&A as a way to play defense, either because they need to shore up their deposits or because they have aging CEOs and are looking for an exit. But investors aren't wild about the deal math.

The annual rankings honor the notable performance of individuals in banking and finance and as teams.

NB Bancorp's deal for Provident Bancorp is the fourth announced in the Bay State since December. It comes nearly three years after bad crypto mining loans led to massive losses at Provident.

Bethany Corum succeeds Tom Barron as president of Capital City Bank; Independent Bank Corp. plans to finalize purchase of in-state rival, Enterprise Bancorp; Customers Bank taps Mark McCollom to take over as chief financial officer; and more in this week's banking news roundup.

Richard Fairbank will receive the restricted stock units in recognition of his work related to the integration of Discover into Capital One, the company disclosed.

Some Wall Street investors are beginning to doubt whether the harshest outcomes of President Trump's tariff threats will materialize. But in the absence of certainty, banks still face real challenges in M&A and long-term strategy.

The 5-year-old experiment of tying executive compensation to achieving diversity goals appears to be ending. The abrupt shift comes amid the Trump administration's crackdown on DEI.

The San Francisco-based bank was long hamstrung by a regulatory order that kept it under $1.95 trillion of assets. Now Wells can hit the gas on business lines it had kept idle.

The megabank is also updating certain policies to bar discrimination based on political affiliation. "We appreciate the concerns that are being raised regarding 'fair access' to banking services," a Citigroup executive wrote in an internal memo.

The CEOs of smaller regional banks received fatter bonuses last year than their big-bank counterparts, possibly thanks to low performance expectations at the smaller banks after the 2023 banking crisis.