Western Liberty Bancorp is one step closer to becoming one of the only blank-check companies to break into banking.

Mission Valley Bancorp in Sun Valley, Calif., said Monday that it received $4.8 million of capital from a Treasury Department program designed for community development banks.

A month after denying United Western Bancorp Inc.'s requests to make payments on its line of credit, the Office of Thrift Supervision has changed its mind.

The potential for a sustained era of greater frugality among consumers does not mean more deposits for banks.

Bank of Virginia in Midlothian said it expects to record a huge increase in its loan-loss provision when it reports third-quarter earnings.

Community bankers are up in arms about a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plan that would require banks to give customers a chance to opt out of overdraft programs for checks and other transactions, arguing it is burdensome, restrictive and would put them at a competitive disadvantage to the largest institutions.

Most customers don't understand the unbundling of bank services and won't take monthly maintenance fees lightly. Can you blame them? Can customers trust a bank to give them the best deal?

The failures late Friday of the $421 million-asset Wakulla Bank in Crawfordville, Fla., and the $104 million-asset Shoreline Bank in Shoreline, Wash., were estimated to cost the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. a total of $155 million.

The $866 million-asset company in Stamford, Conn., announced Friday that both the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency had approved a $50 million investment from PNBK Holdings LLC, a firm backed by New York investor Michael A. Carrazza.

Nearly three months after the Dodd-Frank law created the Financial Stability Oversight Council, its first official meeting Friday was not exactly auspicious.

Hampton Roads Bankshares Inc. said late last week that it closed $235 million of the previously announced $255 million private placement that would lift its banking subsidiaries back into "well capitalized."

BancFirst Corp.'s strategy of fishing for small fry in its home state of Oklahoma is adding up — little by little — to a big expansion.

As some mutual holding companies tinker with their second-step conversions, Northfield Bancorp Inc. in Avenel, N.J., is shelving its aspiration of becoming an all-stock company.

Corporations rotated into time and savings accounts, and households moved the other way, but both sectors kept large proportions of assets on deposit.

Yasmin Bates-Brown planted the seeds for Harris Bank's thriving community-development lending program.

A firm that placed charges on the telephone bills of thousands of small businesses and consumers for Internet-related services they never agreed to buy has been ordered permanently shut down by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Huntsman Gay, a private equity firm, announced today that it has purchased a majority stake in iQor, a New York-based accounts receivable management company. iQor has more than 21 locations worldwide and 11,000 employees. The firm reported more than $345 million in revenues in 2009. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.