COLUMBUS, Ohio — Corporate One FCU said this afternoon that members of Florida's Southeast Corporate FCU have approved the combination of the two, creating one of the biggest corporates in the country with $5 billion in assets.

Nearly a year after calling off a stock sale that would have sharply diluted the value of its shares, Independent Bank in Ionia, Mich., said it would instead raise capital by selling off a batch of branches.

With Dodd-Frank and a sluggish economy as background, M&A experts met in New York earlier this week and shared insights into the future of bank deal-making.

Prices garnered prior to the crisis have little in common with what banks are worth today or what they will likely be worth in the future. Yet boards and managers remain irrationally fixated on outdated, irrelevant valuations.

Cardinal Bankshares' yearlong battle with an activist investor ended with a deadlocked board, an ousted chairman and a lot of uncertainty. The biggest challenge for all parties is determining who is in charge.

Profits fell for the second consecutive fiscal quarter at the U.S. operations of Bank of Montreal (BMO) as loan run-off at new subsidiary Marshall & Ilsley squeezed margins.

The cost of financing leveraged buyouts is falling, and in some cases creditors — which include banks — are letting them borrow more of the purchase price.

State Street Corporation (STT) wants to bulk up in Europe and its chairman is telling investors that it is eyeing deals for the custody operations of the continent’s largest banks.

Dodd-Frank establishes U.S. financial stability as a critical hurdle for regulators to evaluate before approving future mergers and acquisitions.

The payment processor wants to grow through acquisition and work directly with merchants.

The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority on Tuesday fined Citigroup Global Markets Inc. $3.5 million in a settlement related to charges of nonconforming residential mortgage-backed securities violations that Citi neither admitted to nor denied.

Citigroup, a somewhat frequent seller of nonperforming loans, is in the market with a $99 million package of troubled residential mortgages, according to investors that have looked at the package.

Intermountain Community Bancorp had hoped to raise up to $8.7 million from existing shareholders, but the Sandpoint, Idaho, company only got 40% of the way there.

Bank of America will buy back $330 million of home mortgages from Freddie Mac because the bank did not get full appraisals on some properties, raising concerns that some newly originated loans are not meeting underwriting guidelines.

The Federal Reserve has ordered Britton & Koontz Capital to obtain the regulator’s approval before making a number of strategic moves.

The Virginia company had been fighting efforts by Schaller Equity Partners to win up to five seats on the board.

Investors are now willing to put money into community lenders with credible business plans, sufficient scale, and executives who show "courage" and "fortitude," says Greg Mitchell, CEO of First PacTrust.

Hans Morris, who left Visa in 2009 and joined private-equity firm General Atlantic, shared his payments investing philosophy with bankers and former colleagues on Monday night.

The Virginia company will have a retooled ownership, a new director and more capital after a private placement and rights offering. While Hampton Roads' private equity investors will own 90% of the company following those moves, early indications are that those companies are content with management's progress purging bad loans and cutting costs.

Northeast Community Bancorp (NECB) in White Plains, N.Y., is opening a fourth branch in Massachusetts as part of its continued expansion in the suburbs surrounding Boston.