NCO Group Inc., a debt buyer and global provider of business process outsourcing (BPO), announced Thursday the acquisition of Protocol Global Solutions Inc., a company that specializes in contact center services for the health care, energy, government and insurance markets.

Atlantic Coast Financial Corp. in Jacksonville, Fla. said Wednesday that G. Thomas Frankland is now officially its president and chief executive officer. Frankland had been the interim president and CEO since October.

First Bancshares in Hattiesburg, Miss., is buying seven Whitney National Bank branches in a deal that would more than double its branch network along the Gulf Coast and move it into a new market in Louisiana.

The $13.5 billion-asset company said this week that it will shutter nine branches in Arkansas, eight in Mississippi — including two in its headquarters city — three in Tennessee, and one each in Texas, Alabama and Missouri.

Patriot National Bancorp Inc. saw its losses widen in the first quarter, but asset quality improved substantially as the Stamford, Conn., company continued shed problem loans.

Two weeks after First Niagara Financial Group in Buffalo announced it is adding hundreds of jobs in western New York, the chief executive M&T Bank Corp. said his company expects to create 133 new jobs in Buffalo as a result of its acquisition of Wilmington Trust Corp. in Delaware.

Hit hard by defaults on construction loans, Old Second National Bank in Aurora, Ill., has agreed to an enforcement order with its regulator that requires it to boost a key capital ratio by the end of the third quarter.

No financial firm wants to be labeled "systemic," but some won't have a choice. The Dodd-Frank Act specified that all banks with assets of more than $50 billion be subject to "enhanced supervision."

First Bancshares in Hattiesburg, Miss., is buying seven Whitney National Bank branches in a deal that would more than double its branch network along the Gulf Coast and move it into a new market in Louisiana.

The Federal Trade Commission has brought a legal action against an online operation that allegedly scammed more than $450 million from consumers in five countries.

First Place Financial Corp. in Warren, Ohio, is in danger of having its stock delisted for failing to file its last three quarterly financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Bond Street Holdings Inc., the most active acquirer of failed banks in Florida, is looking to raise more money to buy even more banks.

Have the Federal Home Loan banks drifted too far from their original purpose? That's the fear among top officials at the Federal Housing Finance Agency, who have watched with alarm as the level of the banks' investments has surged, sometimes surpassing the level of their advances.

CHELSEA, Mass. – Metro CU, which expanded through Boston with the acquisition of University CU, opened a new downtown branch on Mass. Ave.

Buoyed by a large private-equity investment and the acquisition of another Northeast Florida bank, Jacksonville Bancorp Inc. swung to a $439,000 profit in the first quarter from a $988,000 loss in the same period last year.

The stories of Bank of Hawaii Corp. and Central Pacific Financial Corp. tell you everything you need to know about the troubled past and hopeful signs for the future of banking in Hawaii.

The embattled Capitol Bancorp Ltd. eked out a small profit in the first quarter, thanks largely to a $16.9 million gain on the conversion of trust-preferred securities to common equity.

After the meltdown, the public and policymakers devoted extensive attention to the risks posed by too-big-too-fail banks and the plight of community banks. But a lot less has been said about the hit sustained by midsize banks and its implications.

Continuing to be plagued by problem construction loans, Hampton Roads Bancshares Inc. in Norfolk, Va., said after the markets closed on Monday that it lost $31.7 million in the quarter that ended March 31.

Two community banks have signed up for Secure Vault Payments, according to eWise Systems USA Inc., the Denver company working with Nacha, the electronic payments association, to offer the technology.