Alan Kline

TowneBank in Suffolk, Va., is buying a Raleigh, N.C., insurance agency and merging it into its insurance subsidiary.

ATBancorp in Dubuque has agreed to invest an initial $10 million in United American Bank in San Mateo and will receive warrants to the acquire the bank's 2.5 million shares, at 30 cents each, over the next five years.

New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares Inc., the parent of Lake Sunapee Bank, is entering the insurance business with its buy of McCrillis and Eldredge Insurance.

First Citizens BancShares Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., has retired its IronStone Bank brand and converted IronStone's 58 branches into branches of its First Citizens Bank.

First Financial Corp. in Terre Haute, Ind., is bulking up in Illinois with a deal to acquire Freestar Bank in Pontiac for $47 million.

The president of Home Federal Bank in Sioux Falls, S.D., has stepped down after less than a year on the job.

A private-equity backed North Carolina holding company is acquiring the remaining shares of VantageSouth Bank that it does not already own and merging the bank with its other subsidiary.

Data released Wednesday by the U.S. Small Business Administration shows that banks are willing to finance small businesses — as long as the loans are backed by a government guarantee.

According to new market share data released by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Tuesday, banks and thrifts with $10 billion or more of assets controlled 72% of the nation's bank deposits at June 30, up from 70% at the same time last year and 68.5% in 2008.

Under orders from regulators to beef up its capital levels, Legacy Bank of Florida in Boca Raton has raised $2.8 million in new capital and has deals in place in to receive an additional $13.5 million.

Starbucks Coffee Co. is teaming up with community development lenders to create a nationwide loan fund that would help local businesses, developers, nonprofits and micro-enterprises expand and create jobs.

BofI Holding Inc. in San Diego announced Monday that it has changed the name of its federally chartered savings bank from Bank of Internet USA to BofI Federal Bank.

Banco Popular de Puerto Rico in San Juan has completed a deal to sell roughly $358 million of mostly nonperforming commercial real estate and construction loans to a joint venture created by Goldman Sachs & Co., Caribbean Property Group LLC and East Rock Capital LLC.

After six years in London running Barclays PLC's U.K. branch network, Deanna Oppenheimer is planning to return to the United States.

Home Federal Bancorp Inc. in Nampa, Idaho, is shuttering six branches, streamlining its management, refinancing its debt and shifting mortgage loan originations to a third party as part of a broad restructuring that it says will reduce overhead by $3.6 million over the next 12 months.

The head of a congressional panel that oversees the Internal Revenue Service says a proposed rule that would require U.S. banks to report interest paid to foreign account holders would discourage foreign investment and place an unnecessary burden on banks.

Fulton Financial Corp. in Lancaster, Pa., has unveiled the management team for its newly created New Jersey bank.

Striking its second deal in less than a week, BB&T Corp.'s insurance unit announced Tuesday that it is expanding into the Baltimore/Washington metropolitan market by acquiring Atlantic Risk Management Corp. of Columbia, Md.

The Commerce Bank of Oregon, a subsidiary of Zions Bancorp., has promoted Chief Financial Officer Jodi Delahunt Hubbell to president and chief executive officer, effective Jan. 1.

Sandler O'Neill & Partners analyst Kevin Fitzsimmons on Friday lowered his 2012 earnings estimates for 11 regional and community banks amid concern about weak loan demand and mounting pressure on net interest margins.