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.
-
A dearth of failed banks and an artificially low interest rate environment are causing headaches for many firms that now must face an uphill climb before cashing out.
January 24 -
Bank of Hawaii Corp. in Honolulu said Monday that fourth-quarter earnings fell 3.4% from a year earlier, to $39.2 million, as a decline in credit costs and higher net interest income could not offset a steep drop in fee income.
January 23 -
East West Bancorp Inc.'s shares surged early Friday following news that the Pasadena, Calif., company had a record-breaking 2011 and plans to double its dividend.
January 20 -
Serial acquirer Grandpoint Capital Inc. has announced its first acquisition of 2012 as it prepares for the closing of its last announced deal.
January 20 -
Did an anonymous open letter to BankUnited CEO John Kanas, emailed to all of the bank's employees, imploring him not to sell the bank really have an impact on the decision to abandon the sale?
January 19 -
Westamerica Bancorp. in San Rafael, Calif., reported fourth-quarter earnings of $21.8 million, down 8% from a year earlier.
January 19 -
Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake Forest, Ill., reported late Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose 35% from a year earlier, to $19.2 million, as credit costs subsided and the company benefited from an 11% jump in earning assets from a year earlier.
January 19 -
BankUnited issued a press release confirming rumors that it did in fact engage an investment bank to find a possible buyer for the company, but has opted to stay independent.
January 19 -
U.S. Bancorp's 2.4% increase last quarter was "a high-water mark for last year and we won't see that again until later this year" when "things become a little more normal," CEO Richard Davis says.
January 18 -
BancorpSouth Inc. in Tupelo, Miss., on Tuesday reported better-than-expected earnings for the fourth quarter and hopes to parlay the good news into a successful capital-raising effort.
January 17 -
Mercantile Bank Corp. in Grand Rapids, Mich., has now made money in four straight quarters and its auditors seem convinced that it will remain profitable for the foreseeable future.
January 17 -
New data show that banks that sold large sales to dispose of nonperforming assets have seen stock price gains that surpass other banking companies. The approach still has a fair share of opponents who prefer to work out the assets over time.
January 13 -
Alexi Giannoulias, a former Illinois Treasurer whose 2010 Senate campaign was clouded by the failure of his family's bank, has landed a new job at Bank of New York Mellon.
January 11 -
First Place Financial in Warren, Ohio, hasn't reported any financial results since June 30, 2010. The company is in the midst of restating its results from 2008 through 2010 after a regulator ordered it to increase its loan-loss allowance.
January 6 -
BankAtlantic Bancorp's hopes to move forward with its planned sale without the interference of its debt holders have been squashed by a Delaware judge.
January 4 -
While some of us were shopping for loved ones during the holidays, some banks were shopping for acquisitions.
January 4 -
The University of Nebraska at Lincoln has developed a curriculum that is helping college graduates accomplish the unthinkable: finding banking jobs in a post-crisis operating environment.
December 28 -
The wide disparity in valuations is driving the less desperate of would-be sellers to wait for a less volatile environment.
December 22 -
Late last year, several ailing banks landed new equity and several hit the ground running in 2011. Still, analysts caution that some recaps could hit the wall in 2012.
December 19 -
In what is probably the last night for bank collapses in 2011, regulators closed banks in Florida and Arizona, bringing the year's failure tally to 92.
December 16
