While the failure pace is slowing, regulators are relying on another avenue to resolve troubled banks: mergers.

What would members think . . .

The $14 billion-asset Wintrust struck a deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday for the assets and deposits of First Chicago Bank and Trust, its third FDIC transaction this year.

The move was a case study in how remote events like the Greek-induced European crisis and realities like the sputtering recovery back home can combine to affect daily business decisions at large financial services companies.

Why buy a whole bank when you can snap up its choicest assets? That appears to be the thinking of a growing number of acquirers these days as they troll for select assets and deposits rather than entire banks.

The second quarter ended June 30 brought a major rise in the number of M&A transactions in the accounts receivable management (ARM) space compared with the first quarter, according to M&A advisory firm Greenberg Advisors. The second quarter also saw a jump in average transaction size.

Herbert Lurie, who led many of the mega bank mergers of the 1990s as head of the financial institutions advisory practice at Merrill Lynch & Co., recently joined Guggenheim Partners as that firm works to raise its profile on Wall Street.

NCR, a maker of automated teller machines, self-service kiosks and other financial technology, is buying hospitality software developer Radiant Systems for $1.2 billion.

IMGCAP(1)]

Rising regulatory costs are forcing banks of all shapes and sizes to take a hard look at consolidation, including the mostly dormant field of mutually owned banks.

Encore Capital Group, and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Midland Credit Management Inc. and Midland Funding LLC, disagree with the allegations made in the complaint filed by the Texas Attorney General.

The first three failures of the quarter — two in Colorado, one in Illinois — late Friday cost the Deposit Insurance Fund an estimated $590 million and brought the year's toll to 51.

A Florida holding company formed three years ago to buy troubled banks has struck its third deal in the Tampa Bay area.

Two of Massachusetts' oldest thrifts, Salem Five Bank and Stoneham Savings Bank, are teaming up to create a $3.1 billion-asset company that would have nearly 30 branches in the suburbs north of Boston.

Directors at Nara Bancorp Inc. and Center Financial Corp. will have a few more months to deliberate over the planned merger of the two companies.

Wells Fargo & Co. announced Thursday that its insurance arm has acquired EDIFY LLC, an employee benefits consulting firm based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

First Community Corp. in Lexington, S.C., on Wednesday agreed to buy the assets of Palmetto South Mortgage Corp. of Columbia, S.C. The $607.3 million-asset company said it expects to complete the deal on July 31.

American National Bankshares Inc. completed its 34.7M acquisition of MidCarolina Financial Corp. Seperately, Wintrust Financial said it completed its purchase of Great Lakes Advisors Inc.