Tom Brouster, hired last week as a consultant to Reliance Bancshares, has a track record of turning around struggling banks. Brouster, who declined to outline a specific strategy for the St. Louis-area company, said in an interview Tuesday that selling is always an option in banking.

Visa Europe plans to acquire a 15% minority stake in mobile retail payments provider Mobile Money Network Ltd., the European payment system provider announced March 7.

Shareholders of Mainline Bancorp Inc. in Ebensbug, Pa., have approved the company's sale to S&T Bancorp Inc.

Encore Bancshares in Houston had a three-year plan for independence before an offer from Cadence Bancorp provided shareholders with the same value … immediately.

NCO Group, an accounts receivable management giant based in Horsham, Pa., has notified North Carolina government officials that it plans to close a call center in Guilford County, N.C. and lay off 685 workers in the coming months. The Guilford call center is part of NCO's customer marketing and sales division.

Global banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its general insurance businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore, Argentina and Mexico to AXA Group and Australia's QBE Insurance Group Ltd. in separate deals valued at around US$914 million in cash.

The $114 million-asset Clarkston State Bank in Michigan survived the economic downturn by significantly shrinking its assets, selling a stake in another bank and raising $8.5 million of capital. Clarkston's slow recovery could give hope to other struggling banks.

Big banks need passing grades on stress tests and healthy stocks before they start buying, Frank Cicero says.

First Republic Bank in San Francisco is planning to open as many as seven new offices on the East Coast this year and another three on West Coast as it looks to boost its market share among affluent households in the California, New York and Boston markets.

Nationstar Mortgage and an affiliate company, Newcastle Investment Corp., have agreed to acquire roughly $63 billion in mortgage servicing rights from Aurora Bank FSB, a subsidiary of the bankrupt Lehman Bros.

A New York investment group that is planning to buy a Long Island community banking company has agreed to pay the seller a $500,000 break-up fee if the oft-delayed deal is not completed by the end of this month.

Encore Bancshares is the latest Texas bank to sell itself for a nice price, even as bank M&A stutters outside the state.

Citing the completion of its acquisition of Swedish payments provider Point, VeriFone posted a 40.4% increase in fiscal first quarter year-over-year earnings.

A Texas banking company formed two years ago to acquire distressed or failed banks is buying its first healthy bank.

Intuit announced that Bottomline Technologies will acquire the commercial banking business of its Intuit Financial Services unit.

The threat of an economic setback is real despite general optimism, warns Joseph Ficalora, the chief executive of New York Community Bancorp.

Debt buyer Asset Acceptance Capital Corp., based in Warren, Mich., reported better-than-expected quarterly results, led by a strong growth in cash collections.

A breakdown of M&A announcements for the last week

On Feb. 29 one of the members of the Federal Open Markets Committee, Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher, called for the breakup of the top five U.S. Banks.

Eagle Bancorp of Bethesda, Md., has opened its fourth office in northern Virginia and is planning to establish a fifth later this year.