Growth strategies

The New Jersey company added a representative of Blue Harbour Group in Connecticut to its board.

First Bank, based in New Jersey, will pay about $27 million for Bucks County Bank in a deal that is expected to close in the third quarter.

Creative growth strategies are helping banks with $10B to $50B of assets — including Webster and TCF — improve profitability. These ‘tweeners’ deal with tougher regulations than smaller competitors without the scale larger ones have to absorb the expense.

H. Palmer Proctor has been the Atlanta company's president since 2004.

The Fed said it will conduct extensive reviews only of deals that create banks with assets of $100 billion, replacing the prior mark of $25 billion. The disclosure was included in the Fed's approval of People's United's purchase of Suffolk Bancorp.

Selling a participation in a line of credit to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority reduced the company's nonperforming assets by 9%.

First Busey will pay $133 million in cash and stock for Mid Illinois in a deal that should close later this year.

SBA lending is on a tear. Gulf Coast Bank & Trust is the latest institution to dive into doing this activity nationwide after buying CapitalSpring.

League representing Florida and Alabama credit unions will pay out more than $200,000 in dues rebates, bringing the grand total returned to members in recent years to more than $1.4 million.

Farmers National will pay about $7.8 million in cash and stock for the $43.3 million-asset Monitor in a deal that should close in the second or third quarter.