FirstBank Holding in Lakewood, Colo., will close a dozen branches inside Colorado grocery stores.

First California Financial Group (FCAL) has reduced by 38% the number of shares it would pay to acquire Premier Service Bank in Riverside, Calif.

If the government could eliminate contract rights in this way, then it would be hard to imagine what contracts could not be set aside in the name of market efficiency.

When Bank of America Corp. sent letters to 60,000 struggling homeowners offering to slice an average $150,000 off their loans, the lender got an unusual response from most of them: silence.

The government has failed to publicly vet its use of auctions to dispose of its remaining Troubled Asset Relief Program holdings. That leaves too many questions unanswered about its exit plans.

Bank of America (BAC) has cut some jobs in its commercial banking division as it continues to slim down.

The Japanese credit card company JCB has begun operations in São Paulo, Brazil, under the name of JCB International do Brasil Representacão Comercial Ltda.

John Allison, the former chairman and CEO of BB&T, recently agreed to become the president and CEO of the Cato Institute, a leading libertarian think tank. He joins a growing list of former bank executives who are trying their hand at something totally unrelated to banking.

Small banks beat out their larger counterparts last month with a bigger jump in approvals for loans to small businesses, according to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index.

Ocala Funding LLC, a financing vehicle used and controlled by failed Taylor Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection in Florida.

The San Francisco bank hopes to score points with a corporate customer and consumers by offering financing to buyers of the high-profile electric car.

The real losers would be the biggest banks, the holders of second liens, not investors in first mortgages. Those investors might come out ahead, and homeowners and municipalities certainly would.

Comerica (CMA) in Dallas is the latest bank to announce plans to enter the prepaid card market.

Fidelity National Financial's ServiceLink division acquired DRI Management Systems, while simultaneously rebranding DRI's default servicing workflow platform, in a deal announced Tuesday.

Universal Business Payment Solutions Acquisition (UBPS) has agreed to pay $179 million for three firms that process payments for small businesses.

1st Security Bank of Washington, a troubled former credit union known until 2004 as Washington's CU, announced this afternoon it raised $32.4 million with an initial public offering, the latest credit union-convert to go public.

Deposits are worth buying if you get them at a good price and are making loans, says Stephen Gordon, the chairman and CEO of Opus Bank, which agreed this week to buy 10 branches from PacWest for a 2.5% premium.

Businesses continue to deposit fund in banks as safety trumps yield as an investment priority. The move continues to cause bankers headaches as the funds weigh down balance sheet returns.

Amalgamated Bank in New York is continuing its product line expansion with the addition of a home mortgage division.

Printing and marketing materials provider Taylor Corp. will enter the mortgage industry with its acquisition of servicing documentation provider Venture Encoding.