Pacific Capital Bancorp in Santa Barbara, Calif., is using some of its excess cash to pay down debt and resume paying interest on trust preferred securities.

The state Attorneys General need to get a deal done soon, or they — and by extension American homeowners and those who have lost their homes — lose.

With the outlook for housing still grim, banks have no choice but to continue the thankless job of modifying mortgages, cutting bank on loan volumes and raising lending standards.

Taylor Capital Group Inc. in Rosemont, Ill., has taken its first step in beefing up its common equity by completing a $35 million rights offering.

JPMorgan Chase donations last week in Detroit show how it is trying to target its philanthropy and avoid the "peanut-butter" approach to giving.

A Stanford University professor has filed a letter with the Federal Communications Commission urging it to investigate Verizon Wireless's blocking of Google Wallet on its new smart phone.

SCBT Financial Corp. in Columbia, S.C., announced Tuesday morning that it is buying the $546 million-asset Peoples Bancorporation Inc. in Easley, S.C., for $28 million in stock.

Eastern Europe is well-known as a major source of cyber-attacks, but a prominent recent breach raises the question: is it also a major victim?

FAIRFAX, Va. – Apple FCU opened a new student-run branch in Tuscarora High School in Leesburg, Va., the credit union’s 33rd in-school branch.

ALGIERS, La. – Navy FCU continued its branch openings with a new facility opened yesterday here on the west bank of the Mississippi River.

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Talmer Bancorp Inc. in Troy, Mich., said Monday that it had completed its acquisition of Lake Shore Wisconsin Corp. in Glenwood City.

Late last year, several ailing banks landed new equity and several hit the ground running in 2011. Still, analysts caution that some recaps could hit the wall in 2012.

A panel of Wall Street banking experts met recently to discuss how community banks can best navigate through an uncertain year ahead.

Associated Banc-Corp in Green Bay, Wis., said that it will close 21 branches across three states by mid-2012.

The SEC is unlikely to see much financial gain, or praise, from suing former Fannie and Freddie bosses. Instead, its suits' biggest effect might be in rendering the defendants unemployable.

A small South Florida bank is now considered to be undercapitalized after it restated year-to-date results to show a larger loss than first reported.

The Bailey Building and Loan Association was one of the worst run banks in America. It would have topped the FDIC's problem bank list, if such a list had existed in 1946. In fact it almost certainly would have failed every financial test of today's regulators. The institution was poorly capitalized, its assets were concentrated in a single asset class, and it was a subprime mortgage lender. Of course, it was also a figment of Frank Capra's imagination.

BankUnited Inc. in Miami Lakes, Fla., opened three new branches on both Florida coasts Monday and now has opened a dozen branches in its home state since Nov. 7.