Paul Davis

Total loans fell 1.6% at the North Carolina-based regional bank, which has been scaling back in key segments such as residential mortgages and auto. Wider margins offset that reduction, but earnings were flat and revenue growth small.

First Bank will enter a new market and gain access to low-cost deposits after it completes the acquisition.

Howard Bancorp CEO Mary Ann Scully was so keen on buying 1st Mariner that she met with a representative of one of the Baltimore company's three largest shareholders before meeting with management, and she kept talking with them. It worked.

Facing persistently low loan yields, increased competition and higher regulatory costs, many community banks are at risk of becoming irrelevant unless they rethink their business models.

The company will pay $66 million for the parent of BloomBank.

Cynthia Blankenship, an executive at Bank of the West in Grapevine, Texas, has been a regular in Washington for years fighting for regulatory changes. She is encouraging other bankers to do likewise.

You thought love triangles were complicated. The CEO of Sunshine Bancorp in Florida spoke with nine banks about buying the converted mutual while eyeing three possible acquisitions. The company sold to a buyer that bought another bank at the same time.

The company has agreed to buy Bay Bancorp for $129 million in stock.

The Indiana company's board knew what it wanted from a potential buyer, and that helped it as it negotiated one of this year's biggest bank deals.

The cash acquisition allows First American to expand its operations in Kenosha, Wis.