South Carolina

Former Citigroup executive Gordon Baird plans to launch an application at Independence Bancshares that ties together mobile banking and real-time processing – a technology that some industry experts say could revolutionize banking.

Synovus Financial (SNV) in Columbus, Ga., has formed an equipment-finance division. The group will be based in Charleston, S.C., the $26 billion-asset Synovus said Thursday.

CresCom Bank in Myrtle Beach, S.C., has agreed to buy a branch from First Carolina Bancshares in Waterboro, S.C.

Coastal Banking Co. (CBCO) in Beaufort, S.C., swung to a profit in the second quarter, aided mightily by an accounting reversal.

First Community (FCCO) in Lexington, S.C., has agreed to buy Savannah River Financial in Augusta, Ga.

Carolina Alliance Bank (CRLN) in Spartanburg, S.C., has agreed to buy Forest Commercial Bank in Asheville, N.C.

The $857 million-asset company tapped Jerry Rexroad to succeed John Russ, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday. Rexroad has been chairman and CEO of affiliate Crescent Mortgage.

The Greenville, S.C., bank will acquire Resource Financial Services, which has eight offices in five states. CertusBank did not disclose the price it will pay for the four-year-old company.

Palmetto Bancshares in Greenville, S.C., is shedding more than $40 million of problem loans as part of its ongoing effort to clean up its balance sheet and return to profitability.

Coastal Banking Company in Beaufort, S.C., has become the latest community bank to take advantage of a new law that relieves small banks from the burden of filing financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

WASHINGTON — On the heaviest night of bank closures this year, regulators across four states shuttered a total of five institutions, bringing the year’s failure total to 22 and costing the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. more than $270 million.

Shares of Southcoast Financial (SOCB) surged more than 50% Thursday after the Mt. Pleasant, S.C., banking company reported its first quarterly profit in nearly two years.

Southcoast Financial Corp. in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., reported a fourth-quarter loss of $4.8 million, or nearly five times larger than what it lost a year earlier.

The Federal Reserve Board has ordered bank holding companies in Iowa, Wisconsin and South Carolina to use whatever resources are available to them to nurse their ailing bank subsidiaries back to health.

Security Federal Corp. in Aiken, S.C.. has reorganized as a bank holding company and its subsidiary, Security Federal Bank, has converted from a federally chartered thrift to a state-regulated commercial bank.

Ailing Palmetto Bancshares Inc. in Greenville, S.C., will shutter more branches and eliminate more jobs as it struggles to return to profitability.

The names of 18 former CapitalBank branches in South Carolina have been changed to Park Sterling Bank.

Four community bankers on the hunt for acquisitions warned prospective sellers that they will have little say in how much they get paid.

CertusBank in Greenville, S.C. said Wednesday that it agreed to buy $96 million of performing loans and $211 million of deposits from First Guaranty Bank Corp.

Park Sterling Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., said it expects to complete its acquisition of Community Capital Corp. in Greenwood, S.C., next week.