Gerald Host, Trustmark's CEO, expressed confidence in his company's purchase of BancTrust despite some analysts' concerns about the seller's weak deposit positions in key Alabama markets.

First Financial Northwest in Renton, Wash., and Stilwell Partners are both claiming victory following last week's annual meeting. A representative for the activist shareholder has threatened a legal challenge if its nominee isn't added to the board.

Wells Fargo (WFC) is planning to add up to 200 jobs at its call center in Salem, Ore., and M&T Bank (MTB) of Buffalo, N.Y., intends to hire as many as 30 new employees in the Albany, N.Y., area, according to local news reports.

Politicians and regulators want taxpayers to believe two things: first, that financial crisis had multiple complex causes mostly related to excessive risk-taking, conflicts of interest and deregulation — a view unconvincingly supported by the exculpatory 662 page summary Report of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission; second, that public regulation is a sisyphean task requiring the 2313 page Dodd-Frank Act. This diagnosis and prescription are both wrong.

The Center for Plain Language, a watchdog group, says the bank's merchant card payment-processing agreement was the worst thing written by any company, charity or government agency in the past year.

The House Financial Services Committee is set to vote on a bill that would benefit just one institutions: Emigrant Bank, whose CEO Howard Milstein has made contributions to many of the bill's co-sponsors. And people wonder why Americans are cynical about politicians.

Two directors have resigned, and the Floyd, Va., company's CEO is on administrative leave. Those departures come less than a week after a coalition of angry investors led by Douglas Schaller replaced half of the six-member board.

TD Retail Card Services has agreed to create and administer the private-label credit card program for Canadian furniture retailer Bombay & Co.

The Federal Reserve Board has given a Premier Bank in Denver 90 days to become adequately capitalized or sell itself.

Freddie Mac acquired almost $26 billion of residential loans during April, a steep 38% decline from the month prior, a sign that originations may be slowing — or that the GSE is losing business to its cross-town rival.

SunTrust Mortgage hired former MetLife Home Loans executive Linda Steiner as a regional wholesale manager based in the Pacific Northwest.

Bank of America (BAC) has expanded its wealth management and estate planning to include services that help customers plan for concerns related to aging and long-term care.

What banks are doing today for their retail customers isn't working, attendees at last week's TowerGroup conference concluded.

Among the wave of community banks that have gone to market this month, 1st Enterprise Bank (FENB) was the rare bank below $1 billion of assets to sell shares at a premium to its equity.

Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust has dismissed its chief executive as the Coral Gables, Fla. company continues to deal with the fallout from its ties to a lawyer convicted of running a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

A Florida court has given JPMorgan Chase (JPM) preliminary approval to pay $110 million to settle a class-action claim that accused the bank of charging excessive overdraft fees.

Acquired software meant to help customers handle new rules around overdraft fees.

Banks had two years to update their ATMs following changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act. As soon as the March 15 deadline passed, laggards found that plaintiffs' lawyers were waiting.

Elavon, a unit of U.S. Bancorp, is taking a different approach to mobile card acceptance by using a wireless card reader that is as big as the phone it pairs with.

Roughly two months after putting itself up for sale after its plan for raising fresh capital fell through, BancTrust Financial Group in Mobile, Ala., has found a buyer.