Bloomberg Here’s an irony: US regulators looking to avoid bailouts of too-big-to-fail banks have passed so many rules that regional and local lenders are combining to stomach the costs. The result: Banks are bulking up. Mergers and acquisitions by US banks surged last year to about $18 billion, the highest level since 2009. This year, firms are set to ...

  Bloomberg Brazilian banks are charging more for everything from checkbooks to credit cards to help cover losses on bad loans, pushing the gap between bank-service fees and the nation’s inflation rate to the highest in more than four years. Prices for bank services, which have been rising faster than the benchmark inflation rate since August 2015, climbed 11.5 percent ...

  Bloomberg Nomura Holdings Inc. plans to hire bankers in the US, resuming a push to boost investment-banking business in a market that remains a priority for Japan’s biggest brokerage following a round of cost cuts. The Tokyo-based firm anticipates rising volumes of mergers and stock offerings in the U.S., said Chief Operating Officer Tetsu Ozaki, who is seeking bankers ...