Georgia

The legendary Atlanta banking lawyer played a special, often behind-the-scenes role that was part diplomat, mentor and seer during his 50-year career. He died last week at 76.

It took less than six months to hammer out the biggest bank merger in more than a decade, and the price was one of the last things discussed, according to a new federal filing.

United Community, Synovus, Cadence and others stand to gain lenders and customers even if BB&T flawlessly integrates the $28 billion acquisition.

A field of membership expansion will allow the credit union to serve as many as 400,000 additional consumers.

Regional and community banks are eager to buy branches and hire top performers from the merging companies.

The industry's largest acquisition in more than a decade will create the sixth-biggest bank in the country, with assets of more than $442 billion.

The company will gain four branches in Athens, Ga., with the $52 million acquisition.

Georgia-based Augusta VAH Federal Credit Union is set to merge into South Carolina's SRP FCU.

The Georgia company will abstain from acquisitions this year as it looks to make internal improvements.

Visa is working with handbag designer Rebecca Minkoff to debut a global program to fuel networking among women business owners, while also connecting them to companies in the Visa ecosystem such as Square and Yelp.

Organizers are planning to raise up to $25 million for Tandem Bank.

Cadence has upped the exchange ratio by 10%, a move made necessary by the 40% decline in its stock price since the deal was announced in May.

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.

In the last two years, the Georgia-based institution has returned $25 million to members.

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

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

Morris State will pay $24 million for the parent of Farmers & Merchants Bank.

John Corbett has known the leaders of National Commerce since he helped launch CenterState in 1999. It’s a big reason CenterState is breaking from tradition to hire those executives once it buys the Alabama bank.

The Florida company will have more than $16 billion in assets, along with increased scale in Georgia, when it buys National Commerce.

The company is selling 14 branches, including several around Chattanooga, Tenn., and its mortgage business to FB Financial so it can focus on its Atlanta operations and national lending businesses.