Paul Davis

Wallis State Bank has expanded beyond the Houston area to open its first full-service branch in Dallas.

Executives at Heritage Commerce and Pacific Continental on the West Coast and Texas Capital Bancshares are catering to niche customers and building market share close to home instead of taking grand steps to expand.

The board of NBT Bancorp (NBTB) 's board has made sweeping changes to the Norwich, N.Y., company's bylaws.

NexTier Bank in Butler has agreed to acquire Farmers & Merchants Bank of Western Pennsylvania in Kittanning.

Vincent Delie recently mentioned Maryland, Pittsburgh and Cleveland as target markets, though he expressed lukewarm interest in Philadelphia.

The banking industry's pace of expansion accelerated in March after bankers reported more activity in auto lending and mortgages.

The San Francisco company's former CEO Dick Kovacevich served as stand-in at the Wells Fargo Championship pro-am. Why? One reason is that current CEO John Stumpf doesn't play golf.

Two executives of the former Southern Community Financial in North Carolina claim that they were "unceremoniously fired" because they refused to surrender their severance deals before Capital Bank bought their company.

Former managers of Southern Community Financial have filed a lawsuit against Capital Bank Financial in Coral Gables, Fla., claiming that the companies' merger agreement violated their employment contracts.

Pacific Mercantile Bancorp in Costa Mesa, Calif., has a new president and chief executive.

SunTrust Banks in Atlanta relied heavily on expense cuts to generate higher earnings compared with a year earlier.

BBCN said in a press release Tuesday that the acquisition would position the $5.6 billion-asset company as "the leading Korean-American bank in Chicago" while providing it with entry into the Washington, D.C., market.

CFO Rene Jones says the two companies will "do whatever we need to do" to complete the merger, which has been delayed by the Federal Reserve Board's concerns with M&T's anti-money-laundering policies.

A spike in stock prices and lingering capital concerns should make bankers wary of buying back shares in the near term.

Nearly a quarter of Investors Bancorp's branches will be near the Philadelphia suburbs once it completes its acquisitions of Gateway Community and Roma Financial.

Alliance Bank & Trust in Gastonia, N.C., has a new chief executive.

The banking industry's pace of expansion accelerated after bankers reported increased momentum in applications for commercial loans.

TriState Capital Holdings in Pittsburgh has filed to hold an initial public offering.

CorTrust Bank in Mitchell, S.D., recently bought a bank near Minneapolis and plans to do more deals there. It, like a lot of community banks, is trying to expand into new markets without repeating the precrisis mistakes that doomed many of its peers.

A director of First Cornerstone Bank is looking to buy 85% of the King of Prussia, Pa., bank.