For the fourth consecutive quarter, TransUnion's Credit Risk Index (CRI) declined - indicating consumers were less of a credit risk in 2010 compared with the previous year, the Chicago-based credit bureau reports.

Bridge Bancorp in Bridgehampton, N.Y., said Tuesday that it has agreed to buy Hamptons State Bank of Southampton, N.Y., for $6.3 million.

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Renasant Corp. took a gamble six months ago, promising investors it would buy a failed bank with their money or they would get it back. The $4.3 billion-asset company in Tupelo, Miss., has surpassed that expectation.

Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin Inc. in Madison said it had managed to keep its thrift adequately capitalized at yearend. The $3.6 billion-asset company reported a $14 million fiscal third-quarter loss late Monday, narrowing its loss by 4% in the period that ended Dec. 31, from a year earlier.

Shares of Clifton Savings Bancorp Inc. in New Jersey tumbled a day after it said its regulator would not approve its second-step conversion.

U.S. consumers are spending more on their credit cards after two years of cutting back, according to the Federal Reserve's G.19 report released Monday. The first increase in credit card debt since the financial crisis began is a sign Americans are gaining confidence in the economy.

LAKE HOUGHTON, Mich. – North Central Area CU has branched into the community’s elementary schools with new student-run branches in Houghton Lake, Roscommon, Standish and Twining.

Many bank chief executives are nearing retirement, and a big test will be finding their successors.

Heritage Financial Group Inc. in Albany, Ga., said Monday that it swung to a $922,000 profit in the fourth quarter from a $1.7 million loss a year earlier.

Though credit costs are subsiding at Dearborn Bancorp Inc. in Michigan, its bank has been undercapitalized for six straight quarters.

Texas Gulf Bank in Houston continued a management overhaul Sunday by rearranging several positions and naming Robert Greer as its chairman.

The Treasury Department has launched a public offering for the 1.6 million warrants for common equity it received from Wintrust Financial Corp. in Lake, Forest, Ill., under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Some analysts believe Sterling should cultivate its specialty in commercial and industrial lending, where there is room aplenty to grow, rather than chase a potentially risky bank deal.

A new survey of risk managers across Europe shows many expect an improvement in credit card and auto loan performance in the next six months, with much less optimism for mortgage loans and small business loans.

Rockland Trust Co. of Rockland, Mass. has joined the handful of banks giving their customers the ability to deposit checks with a smartphone.

Repeating a familiar pattern of recent years, banks failed Friday in Georgia and Illinois. Two were closed in Georgia; another, in Chicago, was the city's first failure of 2011.

CNB Financial Corp. in Clearfield, Pa., said Friday that fourth-quarter net earnings jumped almost 90%, to $2.9 million, compared with a year earlier.

Eastern Virginia Bankshares in Tappahannock said Friday that it had suffered an $8.1 million loss in the fourth quarter as its borrowers struggled to make payments.

Net income at First Interstate BancSystem in Billings, Mont., grew 24.2% from the third quarter, to $10.8 million. The $7.5 billion-asset company attributed the results to strong income from the origination and sale of residential real estate loans and the reversal of previously recorded mortgage-servicing rights impairment.