Chris Cumming

The $21 billion-asset Webster has become the official bank of Yale University athletics, it announced last week. The three-year agreement will give Webster advertising and promotional opportunities at Yale sporting events and venues.

Credit unions' tax exemption looks safe again this year on Capitol Hill, but that didn't stop the American Bankers Association from mounting an intense advertising and lobbying attack that also served as rallying cry for the Credit Union National Association.

Executives at Webster Financial, Independent Bank and People's United agree that their retail operations have to change -- but the consensus stops there. Some are adding branches, some are cutting them, and they are all using new technologies in different ways.

Though it has critics, a new financial reporting method could give bankers a better read on small businesses.

BancAlliance processed its first member referral for a shared credit, providing hope that banks are starting to regain trust in each other to land bigger borrowers.

Everett Stern, who last year filed a lawsuit urging further U.S. investigation of his ex-employer HSBC, has decided to run for Congress on a platform of getting tougher on banks and cleaning up Washington.

These deals are hard to put together but are well worth it -- if management teams can get through the problems of working together. Sterne Agee's Michael Barry and Daryle DiLascia explain.

West Virginia's City Holding is content to have loan officers drive several hours to pursue lending opportunities rather than relying on aggressive M&A. Part of the approach is tied to lessons learned from a risky strategy that blew up on a previous management team in the 1990s.

Blues for Barclays; A Challenge to JPM's $13B Settlement

A little-known dissident investor wants the company to sell. Another shareholder is comfortable giving management them more time to become profitable. A key issue involves the company's deferred-tax asset.

There were a lot of deals last month involving larger community banks, and prices rose nearly 60% from a year earlier. The results will only feed more of those kinds of transactions.

As operating costs rise, a growing number of community banks are following the lead of larger rivals by shuttering branches, though analysts hope the pace of closures will accelerate.

The Westbury, N.Y., bank has sought a large deal to vault well over the $50 billion-asset threshold. But with no transformational deal in sight, it is now willing to pass that asset milestone through a small acquisition or organic growth.

New York Community Bancorp (NYCB) in Westbury, N.Y., reported a dip in fourth-quarter profit as mortgage banking revenue fell, but it still but still beat analysts' expectations.

The Los Angeles company had to negotiate with the government, private equity, nonprofits and other banks to recapitalize its bank.

Losses for RBS; Banks Shutter Branches; BMO Makes a Deal

A new accounting framework could give banks a leg up in small-business lending by making it cheaper for companies to provide accurate financials, but accounting experts are divided over whether the standards are an improvement or risky and confusing.

CEO Gary Crosby believes new technology will help the Buffalo, N.Y., company generate revenue more in line with being a large financial institution. But his $250 million investment pledge didn't sit well with investors who were hoping for cost-cutting.

First Niagara Financial Group (FNFG) in Buffalo, N.Y., met quarterly estimates and announced a plan to invest heavily in technological improvements as it moves beyond its recent phase of rapid growth.

Perhaps more community banks should think boldly like TriCo Bancshares. The small California bank's deal to buy another rural lender, North Valley Bancorp, could give it the scale it needs to knock heads with Wells Fargo and B of A, its execs say.