Brendon Falconer, finance chief of the Indiana company since 2019, faces felony child molestation charges. But CEO James Ryan says management is focused on the CapStar integration and organic growth.

Institutions and their investors are facing pressure from climate activists, cautiously awaiting interest rate cuts and adjusting to new Federal Reserve and FDIC policies.

As recently as a few months ago, many observers predicted a surge of bank mergers this year. But longtime obstacles to dealmaking are still there and have been joined by new ones.

New details have emerged about the negotiations that culminated in Capital One's blockbuster $35 billion agreement to acquire Discover. At one point last December, the two parties broke off discussions, according to a securities filing.

Rising deposit costs have plagued banks in general, and the Tennessee bank had to pay up to bolster liquidity after its failed merger with TD. But First Horizon retained customers in the first quarter while not paying them the special rates they got last year.

Societe Generale has been seeking more than $1.1 billion for the business, according to the people, sources told Bloomberg News. 

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., detailed how New York Community Bancorp grew to exceed the $100 billion threshold that triggers tougher regulatory requirements and set the bank on a path to market turmoil via a series of deals that were approved, in part, by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Should the all-stock transaction close as planned later this year, Wintrust Financial in the Chicago area would gain about $2.7 billion of assets.

The Federal Reserve Board signed off on Provident Financial Services' acquisition of Lakeland Bancorp. The newly combined bank will be the seventh largest in the state.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said that he would like to examine the proposed acquisition on "narrower bases."

Any approval of the proposed Capital One-Discover merger must come with a pro-competitive 1% interchange fee condition to benefit consumers and small businesses and challenge the dominating duopolist Visa, and a pro-community 5% deposit reinvestment condition.

Based on the pace of deals through late March, the banking industry is on track for the most branch sales since 2021. Buyer interest has mounted alongside the need to acquire deposits, following hits to funding bases last year.

The federal agency's director said Wednesday that regulators were working to refocus bank merger evaluations on community impact.

Banking regulators and the Department of Justice must decide whether the blockbuster deal raises antitrust concerns. Looming over their analyses are questions about how broadly or narrowly to define the relevant markets.

Houston-based Prosperity Bancshares said it closed its purchase of Lone Star State Bancshares about a year later than initially planned.

The Evansville, Indiana bank named an interim chief financial officer after Brendon Falconer was charged with child molestation.

Mergers have left Virginia without an independent statewide financial institution. Atlantic Union CEO John Asbury is trying to change that.

Last year, the Raleigh, N.C.-based Integrated called off a deal to sell itself to MVB Financial after bank stocks took a hit in the aftermath of the regional bank failures. Capital hopes to expand its government-guaranteed lending with the transaction.

VersaBank in London, Ontario, agreed nearly two years ago to buy a small Minnesota bank. The buyer's CEO says he remains hopeful approval will come soon.

The credit card giant says that it is "proactively meeting" with advocacy organizations to gather feedback that would help with the creation of a community benefits plan. The National Community Reinvestment Coalition, which has negotiated 21 such deals since 2016, opposes Capital One's proposed acquisition of Discover.