Doing five deals in eight months is a lot for any bank to handle, so the $520 million-asset Bradford Bank in Baltimore borrowed a page from much larger rivals and created an in-house conversion team.

Once an active acquirer of Midwestern banks, Merchants and Manufacturers BanCorp. Inc. in New Berlin, Wis., has been idle on the deal front for two years, but its top executive plans to end the hiatus soon.

Larry E. Duckworth, the chief executive of OmniAmerican Bank in Fort Worth, died Thursday morning. He was 59.

Two deals were announced late Thursday for California banking companies - one in the San Francisco Bay Area and the other near Los Angeles.

Mercantile Bancorp Inc. in Quincy, Ill., announced Thursday that it had agreed to buy HNB Financial Services Inc. of Hannibal, Mo., for $30.2 million in cash.

The head of the Small Business Administration told Congress that more money is not what his embattled agency needs.

American Bank Holdings Inc. of Silver Spring, Md., announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement to acquire Grange Bank, a $245 million-asset thrift in Columbus, Ohio.

Sun Bancorp Inc. in Vineland, N.J., has appointed Sidney R. Brown, the company's vice chairman, treasurer, and secretary, to be the acting president and chief executive officer.

TriState Capital Bank is an ambitious name for a start-up. But this two-week-old business bank is already setting records.

A small Georgia bank pummeled by internal fraud reported a $6.89 million fourth-quarter profit it attributed largely to a branch sell-off.

MIDDLE ATLANTIC

Community bankers are suffering from the costs of data breaches, according to a survey released Tuesday by America's Community Bankers.

Premier Financial Bancorp Inc. of Huntington, W.Va., said full-year net income soared 47%, to $6.5 million; earnings per share jumped 46%, to $1.24.

It's the talk of Fort Worth: How did Compass Bank, less than a year after its purchase of the $1.8 billion-asset TexasBank, lose so many people?

United Community Banks Inc. of Blairsville, Ga., announced a deal Tuesday for the $675 million-asset First Bank of the South that finally gets it into all the markets surrounding Atlanta.

Pennsylvania Commerce Bank signed an agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, pledging to improve its risk management, internal audit, and anti-money-laundering compliance.

More banks could qualify for the tax-advantaged S corporation structure under the minimum wage bill the Senate passed last week.

Firstbank Corp. in Alma, Mich., has agreed to buy ICNB Financial Corp. in Ionia, Mich., for $38.4 million in cash and stock.

Southwest Bancorp Inc. in Stillwater, Okla., announced that it has agreed to buy Bank of Kansas in Hutchinson for $15.25 million in cash.