ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The NCUA Board this morning approved the proposed merger of Tennessee's Volunteer Corporate CU with West Virginia Corporate CU, accelerating the pace of the corporate restructuring.

Brookline Bancorp Inc.'s fourth-quarter and full-year results rose despite costs associated with acquisitions.

Valley National Bancorp in Wayne, N.J., announced that fourth quarter earnings fell after several special charges.

The Ithaca, N.Y., bank has been scouting for deals and said Thursday it has agreed to buy VIST Financial in southeastern Pennsylvania for $86 million in stock.

United Community Banks Inc. of Blairsville, Ga. is back in the black — again.

Mission Capital's David Tobin is on, well, a mission. Distressed debt backed by commercial real estate is thriving, and banks should be selling their holdings.

New Resource Bank in San Francisco said Thursday that it had raised $7.7 million through a private placement.

The St. Louis company will restate almost two years' worth of earnings after finding an error tied to loss-sharing agreements for failed-bank deals.

John Koelmel touts quarterly profit in interview, but merger and integration costs weighed on the Buffalo bank — and more are on the way.

Susquehanna Bancshares Inc. in Lititz, Pa., reported Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings nearly doubled from a year earlier, to $19.1 million, on improvements in areas such as lending, fee income and a reduction of problem assets.

John Keach Jr., the chairman and CEO of Indiana Community Bancorp, which agreed to sell to a rival this week, speaks for many bankers in ticking off the threats to going it alone as a community bank — and explains why his bank decided it had to get out now.

Prepaid card companies have had great success at attracting the underbanked, but their prices remain high compared to banks' — and they might have no choice but to keep them high.

The Michigan company reported its fourth straight annual loss, despite a dogged attempt to harness problem credits.

Two deals last week by Sumitomo Mitsui, and economic conditions in Japan, have sparked speculation among U.S. investment bankers whether Sumitomo and others want to buy more banking assets here.

Increased consumer spending had executives from TSYS singing the praises of solid fourth-quarter earnings and, for the time being, soft-pedaling the potential future loss of Green Dot's processing business.

Cullen/Frost Bankers Inc. in San Antonio said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose 4% from a year earlier, due to improvements in credit quality and earning assets.

BankUnited Inc., which last week confirmed a short-lived effort to sell itself, said Wednesday that its fourth-quarter earnings rose nearly 50% from a year earlier, to $41 million.

The Evansville, Ind., bank is at it again, agreeing to buy Indiana Community Bancorp. Old National bought the failed Integra Bank last year and later resold some of its branches.

Iberiabank Corp.'s reported increased quarterly earnings Wednesday, though merger-related costs and impairment charges caused the company to fall shy of Wall Street's expectations.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine's office has launched the Local Government Collections Services Program to help municipal and county governments collect debts.