The Justice Department's antitrust division is probing Visa's new pricing system, signaling that regulators are still paying very close attention to how Visa and MasterCard set the fees for accepting and processing debit cards.

CenterState Banks (CSFL) in Davenport, Fla., is planning to merge its two subsidiary banks into a single bank as part of its ongoing effort to trim overhead and improve efficiency following its recent string of acquisitions.

Anthony Renzi weighed a position with private equity investor Wilbur Ross’ fast-growing mortgage empire before opting this week to leave Freddie Mac for a senior mortgage job with Citigroup.

C1 Bank in Tampa will give a Mercedes to customers who buy a $1 million, five-year CD.

The golf tournament has endured a tumultuous decade since Wachovia created the event to put itself on the national stage. Controversial deal negotiations have occurred there, it drew criticism from bank-bailout critics, and its name changed twice after Wells acquired Wachovia.

Continuing its aggressive expansion throughout the Southeast, Renasant Bank in Tupelo, Miss., is opening its first office in east Tennessee.

George Ramirez, the new chief diversity officer at San Francisco's Union Bank, didn't get the memo that people are purely expense items for banks.

Northeast Bancorp (NBN) of Lewiston, Maine, is looking to raise additional capital so it could continue to expand its loan portfolio.

The much-derided Durbin Amendment capping debit interchange fees lifted the number two card payment network in the first quarter. At Visa, Durbin was a drag that the industry leader successfully overcame.

EverBank Financial in Jacksonville, Fla., reduced the size of its public offering again on Thursday, just hours before its shares began trading.

Freddie Mac posted a profit of $577 million in the first quarter, $676 million a year earlier, and will request another helping of government aid to help sustain its operations.

Customers Bancorp, led by Jay Sidhu, is set to go public. The one-time Sovereign Bank chief and others say he has learned from the past about how to balance internal growth and acquisitions.

In this revenue compressed environment, I hear a lot about initiatives to change bank culture from service to sales to drive badly needed cross-sell revenues.

Visa Inc. (V), the world's largest payments network, posted a 46% increase in fiscal second-quarter profit as it benefited from higher transaction volume and the remeasurement of net-deferred tax liabilities.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan will testify before Congress next Tuesday regarding efforts to allow more Americans to refinance their mortgages.

The Private Bank of California in Los Angeles is opening a new office in affluent — and crowded — Orange County and has hired three local bankers to manage the office and drum up business there.

MasterCard's first-quarter profit rose 21% from a year earlier, as the payments network picked up debit card business in the wake of new regulations.

Bankers usually fear Wal-Mart, Target and other big-box players. But nine banks and mortgage lenders have teamed up with Costco to offer an online mortgage service to its members, and more services may follow.

Atlantic Coast Financial (ACFC) of Jacksonville, Fla., reported a narrower loss in the first quarter than in previous quarters as it reduced its overhead and reiterated that it is still considering selling itself.

The gods of irony must be alive and well at American Banker. It's hard to think of a better explanation for the April 30 tirade against "deadbeats" from Andrew Kahr — whose approach to the credit business was described this way in a front-page San Francisco Chronicle news story in 2002: