Paul Davis

The company will also surpass $10 billion in assets when it buys Community Bank.

Savings Bank of Walpole and New Hampshire Mutual Bancorp believe merging help them preserve a banking model that has faced pressure in recent years. The CEO at Savings Bank will also replace New Hampshire Mutual's retiring leader.

Harrison Finance has 35 offices, nearly 140 employees and about $95 million of outstanding loans.

The company will still use the building for its main office, but it will move its administrative staff to another building.

First Citizens, which wants to buy KS Bancorp, has filed a lawsuit to challenge a so-called poison pill provision that the much smaller bank's board recently passed.

Achieva Credit Union, which recently formed a business to advise other acquisition-minded credit unions, has agreed to buy Preferred Community Bank.

The company agreed to buy Bank of River Oaks for $85 million in cash.

The Justice Department required the sales before signing off on MainSource's pending sale to First Financial in Cincinnati.

The California company has agreed to buy Grandpoint Capital, a business bank in Los Angeles, for $641 million.

At least eight banks are in various stages of formation, including two that have opened. While that is nowhere near the de novo activity of the early 2000s, it's a positively brisk pace compared with the standstill that existed for many years after the financial crisis.