KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. – Pacific Crest FCU announced this afternoon it is acquiring two California branches from ailing PremierWest Bancorp.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency had sharp words Monday for state and local governments that have passed laws meant to help homeowners facing risk of foreclosure, blaming them for slowing down the foreclosure process.

To date, the public dialogue about the Transaction Account Guarantee program has been divided between the political and reputational risks of continuing this extraordinary federal insurance and the potential liquidity crisis that could ensue if the program ends prematurely and abruptly.

New guidelines say directors and officers could face investigation from the agency if they copy or remove bank records before a seizure.

Less than 250 credit unions have the size, capital, and charter needed to successfully buy a community bank.

Bank CEOs gathered at an industry conference had some sharp words for regulators — and for each other. Click through to see the best zingers from American Banker's Best Practices in Retail Banking conference.

Union Bank's deal to buy Pacific Capital is making the U.S. Treasury's decision to a quick write-down on its investment in the target on look like a shrewd choice.

United Security Bancshares Inc. in Thomasville, Ala., reported a fourth-quarter loss of $9.5 million, compared with a loss of $6.5 million a year earlier, as it recorded a $4.1 million goodwill impairment charge to reflect continued weakness in its real estate portfolio.

BillMyParents announced Monday that it will soon be talking directly to its prepaid card users over the Web through a deal with RespondQ.

In what would be the first acquisition in its 50-year history, Peoples State Bank in Wausau, Wis., is planning to buy the $108 million-asset Marathon State Bank in nearby Marathon City for $5.6 million.

As Chris Larsen steps aside as Prosper's CEO, the company — and the rest of the peer-to-peer lending industry Larsen helped create — has the opportunity to change its course and possibly even merge with one of the very banks it originally sought to displace.

Crybaby bankers, when not engaged in weeping over new rules, focus on attacking "shadow banking," whether in the form of payday lending or money funds.

SHANGHAI (Dow Jones) - Citigroup Inc. said Monday it has sold its entire 2.71% equity stake in Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, which will result in an after-tax gain of approximately $349 million.

In her column, "It's Time for Money Funds to Fess Up About Fluctuating Values," Barbara Rehm seems too intent on promoting regulations "that could make money funds miserable," regardless of their impact on investors, the financial system, and the economy.

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Two leaders synonymous with Synovus, former CEOs James H. Blanchard and Richard E. Anthony, will not stand for re-election. Current CEO Kessel Stelling says the change will not sway its attitudes toward staying independent or selling itself.

During an appearance to business journalists, Cordray defended his agency's powers.

Morgan Keegan, the brokerage being sold to Raymond James Financial Corp., lost its bid to be dismissed from an $8 billion lawsuit by Canadian insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.

Critics say branches are expensive and losing customers, but bankers this week rallied in defense of their brick-and-mortar locations, even as they acknowledged that branches are losing some ground to mobile and online banking.

Chimera Investment Corp., a publicly traded REIT that invests in MBS, said in a new SEC filing that it has fired its accounting firm, Deloitte & Touche LLP.