Paul Davis

Short sellers tend to go against the tide, making investments based on a belief that a stock is going to tank. These 10 banks have drawn the greatest amount of short-interest activity recently.

A judge in North Carolina granted a request by First Citizens to block KS Bancorp from enacting a shareholder rights plan.

The company will also sell $58 million in deposits to West Gate Bank.

The $6 million acquisition will add four businesses with a total of $700 million in assets under management.

Gulfside Bank, which would be based in Sarasota, is angling to become southwest Florida's first new bank in a decade.

Organizers want to open the first new bank in Michigan since 2009, while a third group in Florida has filed a de novo application.

Park National, which came to regret its acquisition of a Florida bank just before the financial crisis, took more than a year to vet NewDominion before making an offer.

The company's deal for Coastway Bancorp in Rhode Island makes sense since both institutions are former credit unions.

Organizers in Winston-Salem are planning to raise at least $25 million to form Community Bank of the Carolinas.

The company has agreed to buy United Community Bancorp. With the $114 million deal it would add five branches in the Cincinnati area.