American Express has purchased Sometrics, a company that facilitates payments within electronic games using virtual currency, in a deal worth $30 million, the company confirmed Tuesday.

Series of bad events led to Seattle banks sale to AmericanWest. Being small did not help things.

A group of bankers have banded together to buy First National Bank of Chillicothe in Texas and will use it to open a branch just outside of Dallas.

Big bank deals will worsen systemic risks and unfair competition, said the ICBA, which called for a moratorium while new regulations are in the works. Capital One argued the deal would create a safer company.

A group representing community banks Tuesday urged federal regulators to impose a moratorium on all acquisitions and mergers involving large financial firms--including Capital One Financial Corp.'s pending plan to buy ING Direct USA.

National Bank of Canada has agreed to acquire the retail brokerage arm of HSBC Holdings Inc. for C$206 million (about $207 million), according to a person familiar the matter.

Executives tell symposium audience that Basel committee's surcharge on systemically important firms will impede economic growth.

The Federal Reserve is holding public hearings in three cities across the country to review Capital One's proposed purchase of ING Direct. The hearings to be held in San Francisco are half a continent away from the nearest branches of what may become America's fifth largest bank. Without branches, the bank's responsibility to California cities and counties is not clear under regulators' current interpretation of the federal Community Reinvestment Act.

First Bancshares Inc. in Hattiesburg, Miss., said Monday that it had expanded along the Gulf Coast after buying eight branches that had belonged to Whitney National Bank.

Denying the application would ice large banks, spook foreign owners and deprive the central bank of a key consolidation tool.

BBVA Compass plans to take a small first step into South Florida this spring, by opening a branch in Miami.

The payments technology firm Fundtech can still expand but spend more on R&D and invest for the long term, an executive explains.

Bank of America's biggest conundrum is what to do about the Countrywide Financial situation. This 2008 acquisition called by some the worst corporate acquisition ever, has become the primary albatross hanging around B of A's neck — one that CEO Moynihan confesses is on his mind nearly every day.

It would seem like a no-brainer for troubled European banks: sell their prized U.S. units to stateside rivals that are eager to grow. But conditions just aren't right.

Happy Bancshares Inc. in Canyon, Texas, has agreed to acquire Signature Bancshares Inc. in Dallas.

S1 confirmed Friday that its planned merger with Fundtech has been terminated. But S1's board still does not want the company to be bought by ACI Worldwide, which has made repeated hostile bids for S1 in recent weeks.

A pair of banks formed just before the 2008 financial crisis are the latest to merge as other opportunities to deploy capital remain elusive.

First M&F Corp. in Kosciusko, Miss., is looking to shed six branches, or roughly 14% of its offices.

Wells Fargo Insurance Services said Friday that it had acquired an employee benefits brokerage and consulting firm in Hazlet, N.J., Procomp Benefit Resources.

Worldwide mergers and acquisitions activity has been solid so far this year, but new data indicates that worries over economic growth, Europe's sovereign debt problems and volatile markets will keep a lid on M&A for at least the rest of this year.