After struggling to keep up with the mortgage business’ new reality of lower refinance originations due to higher mortgage interest rates, HomeStreet Bank is plotting a mass exodus from the mortgage business. The bank announced Friday that it is planning to sell off its entire retail mortgage operation, which includes 72 home loan centers in five states.

In a deal that will create one of largest community banks in the Midwest, First Financial Bancorp, the parent company of First Financial Bank, and MainSource Financial Group, the parent company of MainSource Bank, announced that they plan to merge. Based on First Financial’s closing price of $28.10 on July 25, 2017, the transaction is valued at approximately $1 billion.

Huntington Bancshares is partnering with the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, and more than 100 of the NCRC's local community organizations, to launch a five-year plan that will see Huntington invest more than $16 billion for community development throughout the Midwest.

In the aftermath of the economic crisis of the late 2000s, the federal government passed a number of sweeping laws that irrevocably changed the financial landscape of this country, but just how much?

Freddie Mac announced a partnership with The Mortgage Collaborative, an independent mortgage lending network of small, mid-sized and community-based lenders, that will help the group’s members build better businesses and compete more effectively in today's dynamic mortgage market.

Dodd-Frank may not have started the community bank hemorrhage, but it’s advent certainly induced hemophilia. The result? An acceleration in the decline of each and every American town without a "too big to fail" in its area.