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Fifth Third on Monday agreed to buy regional lender Comerica in an all-stock deal valued at $10.9 billion, creating the ninth-largest U.S. lender with a robust presence in the Midwest. Regional lenders are looking to diversify revenue streams, strengthen balance sheets and expand into faster-growing markets as they recover from an industry-wide crisis in 2023 that shook investor confidence and exposed the risks of bank runs and troubles in commercial real estate. Analysts have said consolidation is crucial for smaller lenders to compete with the nation’s largest banks, with several banks looking to take advantage of a potentially lighter regulatory environment under the Trump administration. Comerica shareholders will receive 1.8663 Fifth Third shares for each Comerica share, valuing the deal at $82.88 per share based on Fifth Third’s closing price on October 3. Shares in Comerica were last up 12% before the bell, while Fifth Third fell 3%. “Record bank stock prices have also allowed for a greater currency to do deals, and today’s announcement will likely encourage more boardroom discussions about possible tie-ups, both large and small,” said Stephen Biggar, analyst at Argus Research. The S&P 500 Banks Index has surged nearly 21% this year, outpacing the benchmark S&P 500’s roughly 14% rise. GROWTH AVENUE Mergers and acquisitions have become crucial for regional lenders looking for a competitive edge in a highly saturated U.S. banking market. The latest deal expands Fifth Third’s reach to 17 of the 20 fastest-growing U.S. markets, including parts of the Southeast, Texas and California, and by 2030, more than half of its branches are expected to be located in these regions, it said. “This combination marks a pivotal moment for Fifth Third as we accelerate our strategy to build density in high-growth markets and deepen our commercial capabilities,” Fifth Third CEO Tim Spence said. Many lenders are looking to build larger, more diversified franchises with steadier revenue from businesses such as wealth management, payments and treasury services, as interest income gets squeezed by shifting Federal Reserve policy. Comerica CEO Curt Farmer will assume the role of vice chair in the combined company, while Peter Sefzik, its chief banking officer, will lead Fifth Third’s wealth and asset management business. The companies expect to have two $1 billion recurring and high return fee businesses Commercial Payments and Wealth and Asset Management, following the deal. The deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2026, after which Fifth Third shareholders will own about 73% of the combined company. Manya Saini and Arasu Kannagi Basil, Reuters
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E-Commerce
American scientists Mary Brunkow and Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi from Japan won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for work shedding light on how the immune system spares healthy cells, creating openings for possible new autoimmune disease and cancer treatments. This year’s prize relates to peripheral immune tolerance, or “how we keep our immune system under control so we can fight all imaginable microbes and still avoid autoimmune disease”, said Marie Wahren-Herlenius, a rheumatology professor at the Karolinska Institute. Sakaguchi told reporters outside his university laboratory that “I feel it is a tremendous honour,” Kyodo news agency reported. REGULATORY T CELLS: THE IMMUNE SYSTEM’S ‘SECURITY GUARDS’ The winners for medicine are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute medical university and receive a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.2 million), as well as a gold medal presented by Sweden’s king. Brunkow is senior programme manager at the Institute for Systems Biology in Seattle, while Ramsdell is scientific adviser at Sonoma Biotherapeutics in San Francisco. Sakaguchi is a professor at Osaka University in Japan. “Their discoveries have laid the foundation for a new field of research and spurred the development of new treatments, for example for cancer and autoimmune diseases,” the prize-awarding body said in a statement. The laureates identified so-called regulatory T cells, which act as the immune system’s security guards that keep immune cells from attacking our own body, it added. After announcing the winners, the institute’s Thomas Perlmann said specific therapies had yet to win market clearance but more than 200 trials on humans involving regulatory T cells were ongoing. Among companies in the early race, Sonoma Biotherapeutics , which Ramsdell co-founded, is partly funded and supported by U.S. drugmaker Regeneron to work on therapies against diseases including inflammatory bowel disease. Also targeting that condition, Quell Therapeutics has partnered with AstraZeneca. Other biotech firms exploring the approach include Bayer’s BlueRock. MEDICINE THE FIRST PRIZE OF NOBEL SEASON The Nobel Prizes were established through the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and a wealthy businessman. They have been awarded since 1901 for outstanding contributions in science, literature, and peace, with interruptions mainly during the World Wars. The economics prize was added later and is funded by Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank. Winners are selected by expert committees from various institutions. All prizes are awarded in Stockholm, except for the Peace Prize, which is presented in Oslo a possible legacy of the political union between Sweden and Norway during Nobels lifetime. Past recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine include renowned scientists such as Alexander Fleming, who shared the 1945 award for discovering penicillin. In recent years, the prize has recognized major breakthroughs, including those that enabled the development of COVID-19 vaccines. Last year’s medicine prize was awarded to U.S. scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA and its key role in how multicellular organisms grow and live, helping explain how cells specialise into different types. Medicine in accordance with tradition kicks off the annual Nobels, arguably the most prestigious prizes in science, literature, peace and economics, with the remainder set to be announced over the coming days. More than a century after their inception, the Nobel Prizes remain steeped in tradition. The awards culminate in ceremonies attended by the royal families of Sweden and Norway, followed by lavish banquets held on December 10 the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death. ($1 = 9.3898 Swedish crowns) (Reporting by Niklas Pollard, Johan Ahlander in Stockholm; Additional reporting by Terje Solsvik in Oslo, Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo and Marie Mannes and Greta Fondahn in Stockholm; Writing by Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; editing by Alex Richardson) Johan Ahlander, Niklas Pollard and Ludwig Burger, Reuters
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E-Commerce
Republican and Democratic lawmakers at an impasse on reopening the federal government provided few public signs Sunday of meaningful negotiations taking place to end what is about to be a six-day shutdown with President Donald Trump saying that layoffs are occurring.Asked on Sunday night when federal workers would be fired as he has threatened to do, Trump told reporters: “It’s taking place right now and it’s all because of the Democrats.”“The Democrats are causing the loss of a lot of jobs,” Trump added, declining to answer a question about which agencies are subject to the cuts.The possibility of layoffs would escalate an already tense situation in which Washington lawmakers have struggled to find common ground and build mutual trust. Leaders in both parties are betting that public sentiment has swung their way, putting pressure on the other side to cave.Democrats are insisting on renewing subsidies to cover health insurance costs for millions of households, while Trump wants to preserve existing spending levels as he believes that Democrats will have to cave because of the jobs and federal projects being put at risk.The squabble comes at a moment of troubling economic uncertainty. While the U.S. economy has continued to grow this year, hiring has slowed and inflation remains elevated as Trump’s import taxes have created a series of disruptions for businesses and hurt confidence in his leadership. At the same time, there is a recognition that the nearly $2 trillion annual budget deficit is financially unsustainable.House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, among those appearing on the Sunday news shows, said there have been no talks with Republican leaders since their White House meeting last Monday.“And, unfortunately, since that point in time, Republicans, including Donald Trump, have gone radio silent,” Jeffries said. “And what we’ve seen is negotiation through deepfake videos, the House canceling votes, and of course President Trump spending yesterday on the golf course. That’s not responsible behavior.”The Trump administration sees the shutdown as an opening to wield greater power over the budget, with multiple officials saying they will save money as workers are furloughed by imposing permanent job cuts on thousands of government workers, a tactic that has never been used before.Even though it would be Trump’s choice to cut jobs, he believes he can put the blame on the Democrats because of the shutdown.“It’s up to them,” Trump told reporters on Sunday morning before boarding the presidential helicopter to celebrate the Navy’s 250th anniversary in Norfolk, Virginia.While Trump rose to fame on the TV show “The Apprentice” with its catchphrase of “You’re fired,” Republicans on Sunday claimed that the administration would take no pleasure in letting go of federal workers, even though the administration had also put funding on hold for infrastructure and energy projects in Democratic areas without clear signs of remorse.“We haven’t seen the details yet about what’s happening” with layoffs, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday morning on NBC. “But it is a regrettable situation that the president does not want.”Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, also said the administration would prefer to avoid the layoffs.“We want the Democrats to come forward and to make a deal that’s a clean, continuing resolution that gives us seven more weeks to talk about these things,” Hassett said on CNN. “But the bottom line is that with Republicans in control, the Republicans have a lot more power over the outcome than the Democrats.”Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California defended his party’s stance on the shutdown, saying on NBC that the possible increase in health care costs for “millions of Americans” would make insurance unaffordable in what he called a “crisis.”But Schiff also noted that the Trump administration has stopped congressionally approved spending from being used. That essentially undermines the value of Democrats trying to seek compromises on the budget since the administration could block the spending of money from any deal. The Trump administration sent Congress roughly $4.9 billion in “pocket rescissions” on foreign aid, a process that meant the spending was withheld without time for Congress to weigh in before the previous fiscal year ended last month.“We need both to address the health care crisis and we need some written assurance in the law I won’t take a promise that they’re not going to renege on any deal we make,” Schiff said.The television appearances indicated that Democrats and Republicans are busy talking, deploying internet memes against each other that have raised concerns about whether it’s possible to negotiate in good faith.Vice President JD Vance said a video putting Jeffries in a sombrero and thick mustache was simply a joke, even though it came across as mocking people of Mexican descent as Republicans insist that the Democratic demands would lead to health care spending on immigrants in the country illegally, a claim that Democrats dispute.Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are not eligible for any federal health care programs, including insurance provided through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. Still, hospitals do receive Medicaid reimbursements for emergency care that they are obligated to provide to people who meet other Medicaid eligibility requirements but do not have an eligible immigration status.The challenge, however, is that the two parties do not appear to be having productive conversations with each other in private, even as Republicans insist they are in conversation with their Democratic colleagues.On Friday, a Senate vote to advance a Republican bill that would reopen the government failed to notch the necessary 60 votes to end a filibuster. Johnson said the House would close for legislative business next week, a strategy that could obligate the Senate to work with the government funding bill that was passed by House Republicans.“Johnson’s not serious about this,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on CBS. “He sent all his congressmen home last week and home this week. How are you going to negotiate?”Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Sunday that the shutdown on discretionary spending, the furloughing of federal workers and requirements that other federal employees work without pay will go on so long as Democrats vote no.“They’ll get another chance on Monday to vote again,” Thune said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”“And I’m hoping that some of them have a change of heart,” he said. Jeffries, Johnson and Schiff appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Hassett was on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Schumer was on CBS’s “Face the Nation” and Thune was on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” Josh Boak, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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