An American Banker editor couldn't escape banking even on a family vacation to the new LEGOLAND amusement park in Winter Haven, Fla. Welcome to the land of bricks, but no mortar.

Premier Financial Bancorp Inc. in Huntington, W.Va., reported that its fourth-quarter profit rose 5% from a year earlier, to $2.4 million, as operating expenses declined.

The $114 million-asset Clarkston State Bank in Michigan survived the economic downturn by significantly shrinking its assets, selling a stake in another bank and raising $8.5 million of capital. Clarkston's slow recovery could give hope to other struggling banks.

Big banks need passing grades on stress tests and healthy stocks before they start buying, Frank Cicero says.

The credit card unit of TD Bank N.A. is expanding the types of financing it offers for lawn and garden retailers in North America.

The number of foreclosure sales spiked in January, as banks and government agencies started to clear the backlog of properties that have been in the foreclosure process for several years, according to data released Tuesday.

They won’t go cold turkey. Surprisingly, the more purchases consumers pay for with debit, the more cash they withdraw. Use ATM screens to get the word out about debit’s benefits.

Veritec is the latest company to offer a debit card with an "off" switch. It gives cardholders the ability to switch off the account's transaction functions from a Web browser or smartphone.

The complexities of enabling U.S. merchants to accept contactless smart cards and various mobile-payment technologies represent a significant revenue opportunity for VeriFone, the company says.

Patrick Gideon resigned as chairman of Reliance Bancshares Inc. in Missouri after objecting the company's decision to hire an outside consultant.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will propose mortgage servicing rules this year that would restrict force-placed insurance and impose new disclosure requirements for adjustable-rate mortgages.

American Airlines Federal Credit Union announced Tuesday that it has chosen the Episys core processing system of Jack Henry & Associates.

Nationstar Mortgage and an affiliate company, Newcastle Investment Corp., have agreed to acquire roughly $63 billion in mortgage servicing rights from Aurora Bank FSB, a subsidiary of the bankrupt Lehman Bros.

A New York investment group that is planning to buy a Long Island community banking company has agreed to pay the seller a $500,000 break-up fee if the oft-delayed deal is not completed by the end of this month.

Encore Bancshares is the latest Texas bank to sell itself for a nice price, even as bank M&A stutters outside the state.

U.S. Bancorp is offering a new iPad app that will allow stores to offer instant credit to customers.

A Texas banking company formed two years ago to acquire distressed or failed banks is buying its first healthy bank.

Some tweaks to its travel-related fraud-protection strategies helped an Iowa credit union last year reduce its credit card charge-offs by 16%.

The threat of an economic setback is real despite general optimism, warns Joseph Ficalora, the chief executive of New York Community Bancorp.

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