Some banks are looking past the short-term economic challenges and betting on a small-business recovery. Here's how executives from Bank of America, PNC, U.S. Bancorp and others assessed the market at SourceMedia's recent Small-Business Banking conference.

Take care of your management team last, not the other way around. Vet new ideas through risk management and audit committees, not the marketing and sales department. Manage incentive compensation around risk-adjusted performance metrics.

The chief executive of Monarch Financial Holdings (MNRK) in Chesapeake, Va., has been elected to the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's board.

The president and chief executive of Bar Harbor Bankshares (BHB) in Maine will retire in June. Joseph M. Murphy has held those positions at the company and its Bar Harbor Bank & Trust unit since 2002.

EAST LANSING, Mich. –Michigan State University FCU has won the bidding among seven financial institutions to open a branch in the Sparrow Professional Building in Lansing.

COLONIE, N.Y. – CAP COM FCU, thwarted earlier this year in efforts to build a new headquarters, has a new plan for a headquarters.

Taylor Capital, Standard Bancshares and Community Financial Services are in the process of raising $260 million, prompting calls that the consolidation of still overbanked Chicago will heat up next year.

National Mortgage Insurance, which is based in Emeryville, Calif., said the state's insurance department has approved its application to sell insurance in the Golden State.

Whether it's Warren Buffett's latest views on taxes or his missives to shareholders, market watchers hang on the billionaire's every word. His company Berkshire Hathaway's big stakes in Wells Fargo, Bank of America and American Express have spoken loudly about whom he favors in banking. Click to view highlights of his long, sometimes bumpy, history with banks.

Lingering credit issues and a lengthy CEO search had led some industry observers to wonder if the Mississippi bank might sell itself. The decision to hire the former president of a successful Texas bank might put those rumors to rest.

After six years of declines, lending for so-called Helocs will rise 30 percent to $79.6 billion in 2012, the highest level since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, according to the economics research unit of Moody's Corp.

On January 7, 2013, the IRS will begin accepting electronically-signed income verification forms that are part of the processing of almost every mortgage and loan modification.

Community banks in energy-rich North Dakota are having to get regulators' approval to buy houses for their employees, who can no longer afford to live there.

A series of lawsuits that charge some of the nation's biggest banks with misleading investors in connection with the sale of hundreds of billions of dollars of mortgage-backed securities may come down to a question of timing.

Southside Bancshares (SBSI) in Tyler, Texas, will open two branches in Austin, Texas, next year.

JPMorgan Chase plans to offer instantly issued debit cards in 2,000 branches, primarily in in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, by the end of the year.

Small banks have long seemed best able to cultivate small-business customers because they could offer a more personal touch, and now big banks are increasingly trying to replicate their success.

Bankers should be a resource for their communities beyond making loans and sponsoring little league teams. Here are a few fresh ways to get involved.

M&T Bank is letting customers put a photo of their own (or one from the bank's gallery) on their check card, for $7.95.

Neil W. Brown, the chief risk officer at TCF Financial, has resigned from the Wayzata, Minn., company.