2011 was the slowest year for bank M&A in two or three decades, depending on whose count you use. Don't expect a big wave next year, though pressure on small banks to sell will intensify.

Three years after the government put Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on life support, a debate is still raging over how much the GSEs can be blamed for the housing crisis.

Edwin Hale officially stepped down Thursday as chairman and CEO of 1st Mariner in Baltimore. The banking company named interim successors.

Continental Illinois' internal auditors had been documenting the deterioration of underwriting quality. Unfortunately, no one listened.

United Bankshares in Charleston, W. Va., and local organizations in the Washington area figured out that cooperating on a bike program could improve big-city commutes, recruit new customers and help the unbanked.

Modern technology allows a new entrant in the peer-to-peer lending space, SoMoLend, to create a more targeted matching system for small-business borrowers and lenders.

EverBank Financial is considering buying parts of MetLife Home Loans of Irving, Texas, according to industry advisors.

The title insurance unit of First American Financial Corp. has agreed to acquire Hexter-Fair Title Co. in Dallas.

Peoples Bancorp Inc. in Marietta, Ohio, plans to repay its remaining $18 million of federal aid next week.

Visa Inc. is setting aside $1.6 billion to cover potential costs from pending lawsuits, the credit-card processor said Friday.

United Community Financial Corp. in Youngstown, Ohio, completed another step in its capital-raising plan with the sale of four branches to Croghan Bancshares Inc. in Fremont, Ohio.

Housing production in California was up in November for the fourth consecutive month. But builders in the Golden State are still on track to start the third lowest number of units on record in 2011.

Existing home sales were up in November for the sixth straight month in the huge Houston area market.

Consumers soon will be paying more for government-backed mortgages now that the House and Senate have reached a deal extending a payroll tax break for two months.

A Northern Michigan gas station redesigned the payment process around drivers' IDs to deter dishonest motorists that were driving off without paying for their gas.

Synovus Financial Corp. President and Chief Executive Kessel D. Stelling will take on the additional title of chairman when Richard E. Anthony steps down from the position on Jan. 1.

First American Bank Corp. in Elk Grove Village, Ill., has repaid $15 million of the $50 million it received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program with funds it raised in a recent stock sale.

The average checking account costs banks about $350 annually. American Banker editors break down the costs.

Federal pressure to repay Tarp aid is weighing on the minds of prospective sellers, SCBT's Hill and others say.

"I'm not sitting here being cautious awaiting some confirmation hearing," the acting director says. "I'm going ahead and doing this the way I think the law frames it."