Alan Kline

Northern Trust Corp. in Chicago is laying off about 700 workers worldwide and eliminating more jobs through attrition as part of a broad initiative to trim annual overhead by $250 million.

The Federal Reserve Board has ordered Southwest Florida Community Bancorp Inc. to maintain its health so that it can serve as a source of strength for its ailing bank subsidiary, First Community Bank of Southwest Florida in Fort Myers.

Strong loan growth combined with a surge in wealth management assets powered First Republic Bank in San Francisco to a $90.7 million profit in the fourth quarter, up 19% from the same period in 2010.

Morgan Stanley could be handing out thousands of more pink slips in the coming months as the investment bank contends with slumping revenues and the potential loss of business due to new regulations that could sharply curtail its trading activities.

Riverview Bancorp in Vancouver, Wash., is projecting a loss of up to $5.6 million in the quarter that ended Dec. 30 after determining that five previously performing real estate loans are now considered to be impaired.

Chief John A. Kanas has hired Goldman Sachs Inc. to help it find a buyer, according to news reports. Reasons for selling a bank that has outlined big growth plans puzzles observers.

Shares of the thinly traded First California Financial Group Inc. soared Friday after it was disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that the wealthy owners of the Minnesota Twins baseball club have acquired a large stake in the banking company and are pushing for its sale.

Costly regulations associated with being a bank holding company appear to have forced another insurance company to give up its bank charter.

BankAtlantic Bancorp's deal to sell the bulk of its assets to BB&T Corp. has come under attack from yet another BantAtlantic investor: Wells Fargo.

IberiaBank Corp. in Lafayette, La., is eyeing expansion in Birmingham and other metropolitan markets in Alabama.

All banks are affected by more stringent regulation, but it is the less-healthy ones that are most likely to throw in the towel because of it.

Already an active lender in the recreational vehicle and lawn and garden industries, TCF Financial Corp. is now looking to make a big splash in the water sports business.

Citigroup Inc. appears to have abandoned its plan to sell its consumer lending unit until the economy improves and it can fetch a better price for it, according to Fitch Ratings Inc.

Under orders to divest branches as a condition of its pending deal with HSBC Bank USA, First Niagara Financial Group Inc. in Buffalo announced early Thursday that it is selling more than three-dozen western New York branches to one of its closest competitors.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is planning to shutter 131 farm lending offices in 32 states as part of a broad mandate from the Obama administration to trim $150 million from its annual budget.

Loan demand may be weak at banks these days, but annuity sales are booming.

Two small Kansas banks that have been fixtures in their rural communities for decades are planning to merge in a bid to improve efficiency and better contend with increasing compliance costs.

Northern Trust Corp. is expected to unveil a major cost-cutting initiative next week and one analyst is predicting that the Chicago custody bank will aim to slash its annual expenses by $175 million.

The Securities and Exchange Commission wants banks and other financial institutions to provide more detail about their exposure to European sovereign debt so that investors would have a clearer picture of the firms' overall health.

Improving credit quality and continued low funding costs lifted Jacksonville Bancorp Inc.'s fourth-quarter profit 5% from the same period in 2010, to $774,000.