Retail banks are trying a playful approach to communicating with customers on some very serious matters.

The best performers among banks and thrifts with less than $2 billion of assets aren't just marginally better than their overall peer group — they're more than twice as good.

PacWest Bancorp (PACW) will buy American Perspective for $58 million in cash, trumping a $44 million offer that Umpqua Holdings (UMPQ) made for the San Luis Obispo, Calif., company just a month earlier.

FENTON, Mo. – Alliance CU has opened its new Personal Service Branch located in O’Fallon, Mo., which has no traditional teller lines.

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. – Bellco CU on Saturday will stage a Cinco de Mayo-themed party to celebrate the opening of its 18th branch, in Lone Tree.

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This is the year when bank shareholders started saying "enough" to gigantic CEO pay packages and giving a stinging thumbs-down to certain banks. Paul Hodgson, a senior research associate at GMI Ratings, sums up this year's early proxy-season pay trends and offers insights into what's ahead.

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Hampton Roads Bankshares (HMPR) of Norfolk, Va., has found new buyers for three of its Gateway Bank & Trust branches it had previously agreed to sell to ECB Bancorp (ECBE).

CrossFirst Bank in Leawood, Kan., has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets and deposits of Mercantile Bancorp's $110 million-asset Heartland Bank.

In the Federal Reserve Board's most recent survey of loan officers, bankers have a host of concerns keeping them away from originating loans held by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

BALTIMORE — Two large merchants at Nacha's Payments 2012 conference expressed decidedly negative views on the card networks' approach to the EMV secure chip-card standard in the U.S.

Fulton Financial in Lancaster, Pa., is planning to open six new branches in 2012 and will renovate five others as part of a broader effort to make its branches more inviting and free up staff to better interact with customers.

First Financial in Cincinnati instituted a full pay-out of earnings in August. Although investors were happy with the move, the company has been swarmed with questions over how long it plans to keep the payout. Last week, the company committed to it until the end of 2013.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Monday it has hired a new assistant director for its Office of Minority and Women Inclusion, which will work with other regulators to assess diversity policies and practices at banks and nonbanks.

Just days after announcing a major expansion in mortgage lending, Sun Bancorp (SNBC) in Vineland, N.J., said that it is beefing up its commercial lending team as well.

HSBC, BB&T, Bank of America and Regions are experimenting with new ways to attract small-business borrowers, but each bank's strategy builds on something it did well already.

PVF Capital (PVFC) posted its first profitable quarter in four years as the Solon, Ohio, company benefited from a surge in mortgage lending activity and continued improvement in asset quality.

Capitol Federal Financial (CFFN) of Topeka, Kan., reported second-quarter income of $19.3 million, up more than 23% from a year earlier, as it lowered its total interest expenses.

State Bank Financial in Atlanta reported strong loan growth and lower expenses in the first quarter, but its overall profit fell 38% from the same period last year due what it describes as the "inherent volatility" related to the accounting of failed-bank acquisitions.