Ahead of an expected wave of corporate asset sales and capital raises, Sandler O'Neill & Partners has hired a team of investment bankers adept at advising troubled companies.

The price First Financial paid to acquire Freestar is likely to encourage more prospective sellers.

First Niagara Financial Group Inc. on Thursday reported third-quarter earnings that were weighed down by more than $16 million in costs from closing former Harleysville National Corp. branches in Pennsylvania.

Iberiabank Corp. has agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle claims the Lafayette, La., company illegally charged customers excessive overdraft fees.

M&T and Comerica defended the deal-related charges that hurt their third-quarter earnings, saying future fees and new business will make the costs a distant memory. PNC says its deals will pay off quickly, too.

Bank of America Corp., once the nation's largest residential mortgage lender, has dropped to third place, defeating the original purpose of its ill-fated takeover of Countrywide Financial Corp.

Breakdown of M&A announcements for latest week

FNB United Corp.'s private-equity led buyout of a rival bank cleared another key hurdle after FNB's shareholders approved the acquisition of Bank of Granite Corp.

TD Retail Card Services in Mahwah, N.J., said on Wednesday that it will develop and administer a private-label credit card program for retailer Ashley Furniture Industries Inc.

M&T Bank Corp.'s third-quarter earnings fell 4.6% on merger-related charges as the regional bank continued to reduce the amount of loans written off.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc.'s third-quarter profit slipped 25% absent a big year-earlier acquisition gain, though revenue also dropped slightly as both noninterest and net interest income dipped from a year earlier.

Comerica Inc.'s third-quarter earnings rose 66% after an acquisition helped add $2 billion of loans to the financial-services company's portfolio.

The bank has little choice but to shrink itself through asset sales and layoffs, but the process is slow, demoralizing and no answer to future growth.

State Street Corp. reported a 1.6% increase in third-quarter profit as well as an interest in making acquisitions in Europe and buying back more of its stock.

Deutsche Bank says it isn't suffering from "buyer's remorse" on its $2.4 billion in Lehman Brothers Holdings bankruptcy claims and is accusing Lehman of making a "newfound interpretation" of its own creditor-payback plan that could diminish how much it and others recover.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan urged investors to look beyond the bank's poor immediate condition to what he called the "massive strategic repositioning of our franchise."

JPMorgan Chase & Co. has surpassed Bank of America Corp. as the largest U.S.-based banking company by both assets and deposits.

A community bank held the most deposits in at least nine Texas metropolitan areas at June 30, according to data recently issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.