While these five bankers made headlines this year, not all of them did so for good reasons.

China's Ant Financial, the Alibaba payments affiliate that operates Alipay, is reportedly in the advanced stages of talks to buy WorldFirst, an international payments provider based in London.

From making cybersecurity a priority to enhanced biometrics, here's what's on the industry's wish list this holiday season.

A big splash by Fifth Third, a bid by WSFS to reinvent itself and some bold long-distance expansions highlighted a year where deal activity held steady but premiums rose.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced Friday that it has lifted restrictions relating to U.S. Bank's flawed efforts to prevent money laundering and Citi's deceptive marketing and billing practices.

The combination of CCF Holding, Heritage Bancorp. and Providence Bank will create a $1 billion-asset institution. Veteran bank investor Kenneth Lehman will be its chairman.

Selling $1.6 billion in mortgages, and paying off a similar amount of wholesale borrowings, will allow the company to expand its net interest margin in 2019.

Regulators have approved the proposed merger of Big Sky Federal Credit Union into Billings Federal Credit Union.

Old Dominion University Credit Union, which had two branches and about 3,000 members, has merged with Langley.

Stock Yards will remove a competitor in Louisville, Ky., and enter two markets outside of the city.

The sale should increase Shore's capital levels and allow it to expand its banking activities.

TransferMate, a cross-border B2B payments provider based in Ireland, has announced plans to buy Devisenwerk, a Swiss foreign exchange firm, to expand its capabilities and geographic reach.

Colony will also gain a loan production office in Atlanta when the transaction closes.

In a rare move, Maryland Financial is voluntarily liquidating after its customer base shrank and efforts to sell itself failed.

Ameris has agreed to pay $751 million for Atlanta-based Fidelity; the combined company would have $16 billion in assets.

Chicago Deferred Exchange, which helps clients defer tax hits from property sales, had about $1 billion in deposit flows this year.

Branch acquisitions, once a popular way to scale up in new markets, have started to go by the wayside in the digital age.

Hampton Roads Catholic Federal Credit Union had $5.3 million in assets and about 1,000 members before it merged with ABNB earlier this month.

The San Diego bank has agreed to assume $225 million in deposits at no premium from Modern Woodmen of America, which is shuttering MWABank, its direct bank subsidiary.

Virginia Partners will operate as a separate bank unit after the deal closes.