Associated Banc-Corp (NYSE: ASB) today announced plans for the next phase of the Company's people-led, digitally enabled strategic plan. These plans include a series of investments in people, products and technology intended to grow and remix the loan portfolio, accelerate core customer deposit growth, and deliver a better banking experience for customers.

Churchill Asset Management (“Churchill”), an investment-specialist affiliate of Nuveen, today announced that Paul Sadlowski and Pranai Cheroo have joined the firm as Principals on the senior lending origination team. Both will report to Kevin Meyer, Managing Director, Head of Origination, Senior Lending.

Many regional lenders are undergoing strategic reviews as they decide which assets to offload. They might sell floating-rate portfolios with short maturities or engage in capital relief transactions whereby banks seek to reduce their "risk-weighted assets'' by transferring credit risk to another party. Another option for banks is to divest noncore businesses.

Armstrong Teasdale announces that USFN, a national trade association representing America’s leading mortgage banking and servicing professionals, has named the firm among its 2023 Award of Excellence recipients.

Versana today announced that industry veterans Christine Scaffidi and Christopher Fonte have joined the company as Head of Product and Head of Sales, respectively, reporting directly to Cynthia Sachs, Founding CEO. Each brings decades of valuable banking, data and technology experience, underscoring Versana's continuing drive to modernize the $7 trillion corporate loan market.

Arevon Energy, Inc. today announced it has closed financing on the Vikings solar-plus-storage project with a combination of debt financing and tax credit transfer. Arevon secured a commitment with J.P. Morgan to purchase $191 million of investment tax credits and production tax credits, among the nation's first transactions announced to date that leverage the Inflation Reduction Act's transferability provision.

Anagram International ("Anagram" or the "Company"), the world's leading foil balloon manufacturer, has moved to strengthen its financial position and capitalize on growth opportunities as it continues to provide consumers with fun and inspiring foil balloon creations.

Aypa Power ("Aypa"), a Blackstone portfolio company and a leading independent power producer (IPP) specializing in the development, construction and operations of utility-scale energy storage and hybrid renewable energy projects, has successfully closed a $550 million portfolio debt and tax equity financing, with First Citizens Bank & Trust Company, Nomura Securities International, Inc., National Bank of Canada and MUFG Bank, LTD. serving as lenders, and U.S. Bancorp Impact Finance as the portfolio's tax equity investor.

Western Alliance Bank today announced that Craig Hirson has been appointed as the organization’s Commercial Banking Market Executive for Greater Los Angeles and Orange County.

Access Capital continues to build its organization to support growth and expansion with the well-deserved promotion of John Belling to Executive Vice President (EVP) and Chief Credit Officer.

Raphael’s journey with Access Capital began less than a year ago, and his immediate and substantial impact on the company’s accelerated growth has been significant.

A just-issued Wolters Kluwer survey of 700 lawyers in law firms, corporate legal departments and business services firms across the U.S. and nine European countries gauges the trajectory of demand for ESG-related services, with sobering implications for lenders and other financial institutions.

MidCap Financial, a leading commercial finance company focused on middle market transactions, today announced it has provided a $23mm senior revolving credit facility to Wine.com, LLC.

MPOWER Financing ("MPOWER"), a mission-driven fintech firm and the leading provider of non-cosigned loans to promising students from around the world, today announced that it has closed on debt financing that has propelled the firm's overall lending capacity to over $300 million. Active funding includes commitments from Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, and Värde Partners.

Briar Capital Real Estate Fund (www.BriarCapital.com) is pleased to announce the closing of a new $13.8MM real estate acquisition loan to a foreign owned, start-up company in the green energy space.

New Fortress Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: NFE) announced that it has executed definitive agreements with the Brazilian development bank, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (“BNDES”), and funds managed by Lumina Capital Management (“Lumina”) and BTG Asset Management (“BTG”) to fund up to $575 million in asset-based financing.

-Marathon Capital, LLC (“Marathon Capital”), a leading financial advisory and investment banking firm to the clean economy, today announced the launch of its Equity Research Group with the addition of Alex Kania, as Lead Analyst. Equity research complements Marathon Capital’s growing Equity Capital Markets business launched in 2022.

Aquila Air Capital (“Aquila”), a leading lessor focused on end-of-life solutions, announced today the successful closing of a $100 million financing. The financing is aimed at increasing Aquila’s ability to deliver bespoke lease solutions for passenger and cargo operators across the globe.

PNC Bank announced today that Kate Kelly will retire from PNC as regional president for the Twin Cities region Dec. 15. Succeeding Kelly is Kelly McQueen, an experienced banking executive. McQueen will be a dual role leader as the bank’s Twin Cities regional president and head of Corporate Banking for Minnesota.

Tradewind Finance, an international trade finance company with headquarters in Germany, has been named winners of the 2023 Global Banking & Finance Awards® for Best Factoring Company Germany 2023 and Best NBFI Management Team Germany 2023.