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.
-
The Lafayette, La., bank ended its M&A break Monday by announcing an agreement to buy a nearby rival, Teche Holding. It says more deals are likely, adding to the rise of buyers based in the South.
January 13 -
Old National Bancorp says it learned its lesson from the recent defection of some important lenders from a bank it agreed to buy last fall, and it incorporated those in structuring its deal announced this week for United Bancorp.
January 9 -
The Minneapolis bank's agreement to buy 94 RBS-owned branches in Chicago is the biggest deal that a big bank has pursued in awhile, and observers will watch the approval process closely for any signs that regulators are warming to the idea of acquisitions by large banks.
January 7 -
The Minneapolis company has inked a deal to buy 105 Chicago-area branches of Citizens Financial Group, the U.S. bank owned by Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC, Crain's Chicago Business reported Monday.
January 6 -
Cincinnati's First Financial Bancorp amassed a lot of capital thanks to failed-bank deals but took its time deciding what to do with it. Its three recent expansion moves put it in the company of other failed-bank buyers that are shifting to open-bank M&A.
January 6 -
Fred Joseph retired from overseeing banks and securities firms last month. In a wide-ranging interview, he reflected on his career and provided perspective on the future of the banking industry.
January 2 -
Private equity, new regulatory costs and declining benefits from failed-bank deals are some of the big factors that will determine who buys and sells in the coming year.
December 31 -
Banks that want to expand via M&A will face a special challenge in 2014. The failed-bank market has quieted, but regulatory costs and other factors that are expected to drive open-bank M&A haven't coalesced quite yet, says bank M&A advisor Randy Dennis.
December 23 -
This time last year American Banker predicted six types of deals that would predominate in 2013. We were right about some things (more mergers of equals), wrong about others (lots of tiny banks would sell), and partly correct in some cases. Here's our self-critique.
December 19 -
Early in the year Hanmi Financial in Los Angeles was poised to put itself up for sale. But its deal to buy a Texas bank with operations in six states could rearm Hanmi in its fight with BBCN Bancorp and Wilshire Bancorp to be the top Korean-American bank.
December 16 -
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday closed Texas Community Bank, a $160 million-asset institution located north of Houston.
December 13 -
Buyers of failed banks and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. have mutual interests in closing out loss-share agreements even before they are due to sunset in coming years.
December 12 -
BBX Capital in Florida, which sold BankAtlantic to BB&T last year, has added Hoffman's Chocolates to its wide-ranging holdings.
December 12 -
Buyers in Texas show little interest in strugglers like Omnibank in Houston, leaving the door open for a buyer like Bank of the Ozarks from Arkansas that knows how to acquire and fix broken banks.
December 11 -
Bank mergers of equals are on the rise, but buyers are giving up their brands to make them happen.
December 5 -
LegacyTexas Bank is majority-owned by the family of Carroll Shelby, who famously partnered with Ford Motor Co. to produce the Shelby Mustang muscle car. LegacyTexas has agreed to merge with another bank, but the family will remain involved.
December 5 -
ViewPoint Financial Group is acquiring LegacyTexas in hopes of creating a large community bank solely focused on the greater Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, bucking a 2013 trend in Texas and across the country of using M&A to enter complementary markets.
December 3 -
Heartland Financial USA's unusual acquisition of Freedom Bank in Sterling, Ill., seems to be more about collecting on a debt than strategic M&A. Such moves are uncommon but have happened in the last few years and they can work.
November 27 -
The positive reaction to Independent Bank Group's $170 million agreement to buy BOH Holdings shows how precrisis M&A valuation methods are returning and that the industry is getting stronger.
November 25 -
Bank buyers should be taking notes about the problems with HealthCare.gov. A bad online integration of an acquisition could send new customers to the door, or worse: to Twitter.
November 22
