Alan Kline

Two weeks after announcing plans to open its first retail branch in Los Angeles County, First PacTrust Bancorp Inc. in Chula Vista, Calif., has struck its deal to buy a bank there.

Pacific Capital Bank has ditched its name and is consolidating its five separately branded banks under the name Santa Barbara Bank & Trust N.A.

Ohio's Liberty Savings Bank is exiting its home state and selling its 16 branches there to First Financial Bancorp of Cincinnati, tripling First Financial's footprint in Dayton.

Community bankers are urging lawmakers to pressure the IRS into withdrawing a proposed rule requiring banks to report interest paid on deposit accounts of nonresidents.

Community bankers are urging lawmakers to pressure the Internal Revenue Service into withdrawing a proposed rule that would require U.S. banks to report to the IRS any interest paid on deposit accounts of nonresident aliens.

Ohio's Liberty Savings Bank is exiting its home state and selling its 16 branches there to First Financial Bancorp of Cincinnati, tripling First Financial's footprint in Dayton.

Eager to lower its overhead, Hampton Roads Bankshares Inc. in Norfolk, Va., will close nine branches this year and move customers' accounts into other nearby branches.

Huntington National Bank is committing $2 billion to help jumpstart Michigan's sputtering economy.

The $3.6 billion-asset thrift company said this week that its lender, U.S. Bank, has given it another six months to repay a $116.3 million loan that was due to be paid off May 31.

Republic Bancorp Inc. in Louisville is exiting the Bowling Green, Ky., market and selling its branch there to a local rival.

Tennessee Commerce Bancorp Inc. in Franklin will not be required to restate its 2010 earnings after all, but it is under orders to boost its capital ratios.

Xenith Bancshares Inc. of Richmond, Va., is adding market share in its hometown with a deal to acquire the lone Virginia branch of Paragon Commercial Bank in Raleigh, N.C.

BankUnited Inc. of Miami Lakes, Fla., is expanding into the New York market with a deal to acquire Herald National Bank for $71.4 million in cash and stock.

Less than six months after completing its first bank acquisition, First General Bank in Rowland Heights, Calif., has struck another deal.

Webster Financial Corp. in Waterbury, Conn., has hired a former top executive at NewAlliance Bancshares as its chief financial officer.

Shares of Herald National Bank rose more than 25% Tuesday after Bloomberg reported that BankUnited in Miami Lakes, Fla., was in talks to acquire the small, New York-based commercial bank.

Boston Private Financial Holdings Inc. has combined its four banks in New England, California and the Pacific Northwest under a single charter.

Community bankers are backing a bill introduced in the House of Representatives last week that would exempt privately held banks with less 2,000 shareholders from filing quarterly reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

First Financial Holdings Inc. is selling its insurance agency subsidiary and its chief executive said that the Charleston, S.C., company intends to use the proceeds to shore up its capital base and invest in its core businesses of banking and wealth management.

Less than six months after closing its first-ever bank acquisition, First General Bank in Rowland Heights, Calif., has struck a deal to buy another small bank.