Jim Dobbs

The Pittsburgh-based parent of First National Bank of Pennsylvania plans to close its $117 million buyout of UB Bancorp in December.

Analysts are watching to see if more lenders join the ranks of First Northwest in Washington state and Orrstown Financial Services in Pennsylvania, which laid off staff or closed branches to offset rising wages and other expenses.

Financial institutions of all sizes — from JPMorgan Chase to SouthState to Fairwinds Credit Union — have reopened many branches, rolled out mobile banking units as well as reemployed pandemic-era digital and loan-forgiveness strategies in parts of Florida and South Carolina devastated by the powerful hurricane.

Taichung Commercial Bank said it would pay $82.1 million to buy American Continental Bancorp in suburban Los Angeles.

The company said a national search ended in its backyard with the hiring of Wisconsin veteran banker Tim Schneider, the former CEO and co-founder of Investors Community Bank.

Nearly nine out of 10 bankers surveyed by the Conference of State Bank Supervisors ranked the specter of rising deposit costs and narrowing margins as their top concern.

Investors are looking past the current boom in loan activity, fearing that inflation and other factors will cool demand and make it harder for borrowers to make payments.

The all-stock acquisition of Lakeland Bancorp, expected to close in the second quarter of 2023, would create a combined bank with more than $25 billion of assets.

BayFirst Financial Corp. said it initiated the process of shuttering its out-of-state network of residential mortgage loan production offices.

The buyer said it would pay $140 million in cash and stock to acquire Citizens Bancshares. It would gain about $1 billion of assets in and around Missouri's largest city.