Robert Barba is the technology editor of American Banker. Robert previously served as deputy editor of American Banker's dealmaking and strategy section. He joined American Banker in late 2007 as a community banking reporter, just in time for the financial crisis. Robert played a lead role in covering community banks' struggle for survival in the years following the downturn. Robert has appeared on Fox Business to discuss bank failures and the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program. Prior to joining American Banker, Robert was a general business reporter at Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers in Stuart, Fla. He began his career as a business desk intern at The Denver Post and Boulder Daily Camera. Robert is based in New York.
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The proposed merger of two Pennsylvania companies with ties to Vernon W. Hill 2nd has been touted as the second coming of Commerce Bank. But more than nine months on, regulators have yet to bless the deal.
August 18 -
After four consecutive quarterly losses, the depleted Mercantile Bancorp Inc. in Quincy, Ill., is exploring ways to recapitalize itself.
August 17 -
Capital Insight Partners Inc., a Chicago investment bank, is recruiting experienced bankers to pair with private-equity firms that want to roll up failed institutions around the country.
August 14 -
The capital-strapped Amcore Financial Inc. of Rockford, Ill., announced Wednesday that it has agreed to sell two of its Wisconsin branches to First National Bank and Trust Co., in Beloit, Wis.
August 12 -
First Federal Bankshares Inc. in Sioux City, Iowa, is running out of time to raise capital, and now it also needs to find a chief executive.
August 12 -
For years banks from other states have been eager to enter Texas. Now at least a handful of them are weighing branch sales there. It's not that these sellers have soured on the Lone Star State, which continues to hold up relatively well despite the recession. It's just that they need capital.
August 11 -
UCBH Holdings Inc. is forecasting a provision for loan losses of $300 million to $350 million for the second quarter, up roughly tenfold from a year earlier.
August 7 -
On the heels of reporting a $63.9 million second-quarter loss, Seacoast Banking Corp. in Florida has initiated a public offering. The $2.1 billion-asset Stuart company plans to sell 34.5 million shares of common stock and, if demand is strong enough, an additional 5.2 million shares.
August 7 -
CapitalSource reported Thursday that it swung to a $247M loss in the 2Q, from a profit of $62M a year earlier, as credit quality continued to worsen.
August 6 -
With no capital left, Irwin Financial Corp. is pinning its hopes for survival on a new program from the Treasury Department that may not even exist. The $3.4 billion-asset company reported Wednesday that, after seven quarters of losses, its total risk-based capital has dipped below zero. Though both Irwin's bank and its thrift remained adequately capitalized at the end of the second quarter, regulators have given the thrift until Aug. 31 to boost its capital or face a forced sale or liquidation.
August 5 -
The $3.8 billion-asset First Financial missed out on the boom years, spending the middle part of the decade quitting unprofitable business lines and markets, and shedding employees.
August 4 -
After a consent order from its regulators landed it in default on a line of credit, Amcore Financial Inc. in Rockford, Ill., has paid down some of the debt and gotten an extension to repay the rest.
August 3 -
As FSI Group LLC prepared to pour $40 million into Security Bank Corp. last year, it considered what it thought would be the worst-case scenario.
July 31 -
Though the seizure of Security Bank Corp.'s six banks did nothing to change Georgia's reputation as a failure hub, many are calling the resolution the best thing to happen to the state's banking market in years.
July 31 -
A year after posting its first loss, Corus Bankshares is out of capital and out of options. The $7 billion-asset Chicago company reported Friday that it lost $487.3 million in the second quarter, leaving its bank unit with a capital deficit of $157 million.
July 31 -
Despite a second-quarter loss of $43.9 million that left it with a capital shortfall, Integra Bank Corp. in Evansville, Ind., said Friday that it has made progress in dealing with its souring credit quality.
July 31 -
With its credit quality increasingly troubled, Midwest Banc Holdings Inc. was already among the relatively small group of banks to defer dividend payments on the government's preferred shares.
July 29 -
Amcore Financial, a $5.1 billion-asset company in Rockford, Ill., reported a loss of $10.7M in the second quarter, its sixth consecutive loss.
July 28 -
Webster Financial Corp. of Waterbury, Conn., is getting a $115 million infusion from the private-equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC.
July 27 -
Nonperforming assets continued to rise at an already stressed Citizens Republic Bancorp of Flint, Mich., in the second quarter, as the Michigan economy deteriorated further.
July 24
