The Treasury Department has begun auctioning more than $51 million of stock that it acquired through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Bank investors may be softening their antipathy for long earn-back periods. When Union First Market Bankshares promised five years of dilution – but a big boost to earnings – from its deal for StellarOne, its stock declined only a little.

Barry Sommers, the new head of JPMorgan Chase's consumer bank, spent most of his career selling wealth-management services. Now he says he's ready to serve the bank's less-affluent customers.

A breakdown of M&A announcements in the financial services industry for the week ended June 8.

The $120 billion-asset company has made a tender offer for certain debt of Union Planters Preferred Funding, a REIT subsidiary that it then plans to dissolve, it said Monday.

The $168 million-asset asset lender is offering as many as 500,000 shares at $10 per share, it announced Monday. The stock closed Friday at $9.85 a share; it had risen 1.5%, to $10, at midday Monday.

West Bancorp. (WTBA) in Des Moines, Iowa, is taking advantage of low interest rates to buy back a chunk of its stock.

The banking unit of FNB United in Asheboro, N.C., has been freed from a regulatory order and has completed its integration of the Bank of Granite.

Deloitte Corporate Finance has acquired McColl Partners, a middle-market investment bank founded by retired Bank of America Chief Executive Hugh McColl.

Union First Market Bankshares in Richmond, Va., has agreed to acquire StellarOne in Charlottesville, Va.

Wilshire Bancorp in Los Angeles has agreed to buy BankAsiana in Palisades Park, N.J.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed the $437.3 million-asset Mountain National Bank in Sevierville, Tenn., on Friday.

Shareholders who hoped proxy firms ISS and Glass Lewis would help them decide on Bond Street's controversial $5-per-share offer for Atlantic Coast Financial in Florida are out of luck: ISS says "aye," while Glass Lewis says "nay."

Texas State Bankshares in Harlingen has agreed to buy Border Capital Group in McAllen in a merger of South Texas lenders.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. exercised its powers to appoint itself the receiver to circumvent a judge's ruling that barred Nevada regulators from closing a tiny bank belonging to Capitol Bancorp.

Taylor Capital Group in Chicago has hired a new chief compliance officer for Cole Taylor Bank.

Waterstone Financial (WSBF) in Wauwatosa, Wis., is planning a second-step conversion.

Lowering overhead (relative to assets) would be a powerful motivator for a bank to get big, fast. But the savings just aren't there.

First PacTrust Bancorp in Irvine, Calif., is planning to raise more than $40 million through a sale of preferred shares.

Atlantic Coast Financial Corp. has settled litigation with shareholders who objected the terms of its proposed merger with Bond Street Holdings.