* Banco Popular de Puerto Rico signed a $1.7 billion cash deal to buy approximately $1.5 billion in retail auto loans and $340 million in commercial loans from Wells Fargo's Reliable Financial Services and Reliable Finance Holding.
* The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son inked an agreement to acquire Deutsche Bank's banking and custody business in the Cayman Islands, Jersey and Guernsey.
* Days after news broke out that Wells Fargo sent erroneous letters to 38,000 people, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote to the company's CEO Timothy Sloan criticizing Wells for its "utterly inept" efforts at compensating customers who were improperly charged mortgage rate-lock fees and auto loan insurance premiums, The Wall Street Journal reports.
* Berkshire Hathaway lowered its stake in Wells Fargo — having sold 6 million shares, or 1.31% of its investment — during the fourth quarter of 2017.
* Bank of America Merrill Lynch is in a confidential merchant lending partnership with Amazon.com, say sources for CNBC.
* Infinity Property and Casualty and Kemper set a $49.6 million termination fee related to their pending merger.
* Commercial property insurers want double-digit rate hikes on catastrophe-exposed insurance programs, but abundant risk transfer capacity in the form of traditional and alternative capital is dampening the potential for widespread market firming, according to Willis Towers Watson.
* In Illinois, First National Bank in Paxton is set to merge with its sister bank, Cissna Park State Bank, to become Frederick Community Bank.
* Watertown, S.D.-based Avanti FCU and Glacial Lakes Educational Employees FCU will merge March 1.
* The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill known as the "Madden Fix," aimed at resolving legal ambiguity around the rights of a digital lender when entering bank partnerships.
* The House Ways and Means Committee peppered Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar with questions over funding cuts in President Donald Trump's fiscal-year 2019 budget, but did not raise questions over Trump's request to slash the budget for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that has alarmed the public health community.
* And the House Financial Services Committee's subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit will hold a hearing titled "Examining De-risking and its Effect on Access to Financial Services" at 9:30 a.m. ET.
The Daily Dose: Express Edition is updated as of 6:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription.