About half of the deals in January were in the Midwest, and there have been a few more since — but some key ingredients for "the wave" are missing.

First Financial Service Corp. in Elizabethtown, Ky., said it had a new chairman and that its chief executive will step down for health reasons.

After 100 years of having a federal charter, Frost says new reform law has increased the value of state regulation.

Hana Financial Group of Seoul, South Korea, has agreed to buy newly issued shares of common stock, and a 51% ownership interest, in Saehan Bancorp in Los Angeles.

Massachusetts' top securities regulator has asked Bank of America to turn over documents related to two collateralized loan obligations.

The Texas Bankers Association is irked about the National Credit Union Administration's decision to infuse $60 million into the otherwise insolvent Texans Credit Union.

The private banking arm of KeyCorp in Cleveland has established a Delaware trust company and hired two veterans from competitors to help run it.

Royal Bank of Scotland will start winding down parts of its equity capital markets and cash equities business, staff were told this morning by global head of equities Frank McKirgan.

EverBank, which has been carefully growing its mortgage business the past few years, has agreed to purchase the warehouse division of MetLife, the company confirmed to National Mortgage News.

Horizon Bancorp in Michigan City, Ind., has agreed to buy Heartland Bancshares Inc. of Franklin, Ind., in an all-stock deal valued at $14 million.

Liberty Bell Bank has been fighting battles with a former chairman for more than five years. Last month, the bank filed to form a bank holding company, just months after the activist investor was rounded up by U.S. marshals for allegedly defrauding elderly people around Philadelphia.

CapStar Bank in Nashville announced late Thursday that it has struck a deal to acquire the $169 million American Security Bank & Trust Co. in Hendersonville, Tenn., for a mix of cash and stock.

How is Wells Fargo & Co.'s $15 billion deal for Wachovia Corp. three years ago working out for the San Francisco company? Really, really well, Wells Fargo Chief Financial Officer Timothy Sloan said Thursday.

Private-equity firms complain about the government dragging its feet in approving their bank deals, but the investors in ECB Bancorp may have found a silver lining.

The government-owned Ally Financial has issued an offering book on Residential Capital Corp. in the hope that it can finally unload its money-losing mortgage division and take the rest of the company public, according to investment bankers familiar with the matter.

The Federal Reserve Board has approved Hana Financial Group Inc.'s acquisition of indirect controlling interests in two U.S. units of Korea Exchange Bank.

Asta Funding Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., reported financial results for the its fiscal first quarter ended December 31, led by an increase in net income and drops in revenue and total cash collections.

First Financial Service has agreed to sell four of its branches in Indiana as the Elizabethtown, Ky., company works to increase its capital ratios to meet a consent order.

ECB Bancorp Inc.'s plan to raise $80 million from private-equity groups and institutional investors has been put hold because regulators have yet to approve the pact.

The gap between healthy banks and those that remain in the doldrums will fuel acquisition activity in the coming years, a Virginia investment management firm predicts.