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."

The wide disparity in valuations is driving the less desperate of would-be sellers to wait for a less volatile environment.

Desperate to purge their books of foreclosures, and tempted by the high price of agricultural land, some bankers and consultants predict an oncoming wave of community banks selling abandoned residential developments to buyers intent on converting the lots to farm land.

Flush with capital after raising roughly $1.1 billion in a stock sale late last year, Capitol Federal Financial Inc. in Topeka, Kan., now plans to deploy some of that capital by repurchasing up to 10% of its shares.

MutualBank in Muncie, Ind., has received regulatory approval to convert from a federal savings bank to a state commercial bank.

eBay's acquisition of BillSafe, which lets shoppers pay for purchases only after they receive a mailed invoice, shows its commitment to the instant-credit model. But observers warn that this model requires finely-tuned risk management to guard against fraud or excess delinquencies.

First Midwest Bancorp Inc. in Itasca, Ill., said Thursday that it paid $900,000 to repurchase a warrant it had issued to the Treasury Department as part of its participation in the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

E*Trade Financial Corp. and its insurers have agreed to pay $79 million to settle a class-action suit brought by investors over losses in its mortgage and home-equity loan portfolios.