BankUnited is planning an initial public offering 15 months after the Florida lender collapsed and was acquired by investors including Carlyle Group and WL Ross & Co., according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The number of collection agencies and creditors sued under various consumer statutes spiked to 480 in the second half of July, compared with 389 in the first half, according to data from U.S. District Courts.

WICHITA, Kan. – Meritrust CU said yesterday it is partnering with CO-OP Financial Services to give its members access to more than 28,000 surcharge-free ATMs nationwide.

If ShoreBank is trying to get open-bank assistance, as some media outlets have reported, the undercapitalized lender's odds of success are long.

First Chester County Corp. in West Chester, Pa., announced its first-quarter financial results this week, more than four months after the quarter ended.

Columbia Banking System Inc. in Tacoma, Wash., has repaid the $76.9 million it received under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Alliance Bancorp Inc. in Broomall, Pa., is planning a second-step conversion, whose proceeds it said would help fund growth.

Nearly 1,200 banks have been hit with an enforcement action made public by federal regulators since the start of 2008, and that number is expected to climb at an accelerated rate.

Though the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform law designed separate rules for large and small institutions, covering everything from capital to stress tests to consumer protection, a consensus is growing that the higher standards for bigger institutions will eventually apply to everyone else.

Everyone is waiting for small business to revive and generate jobs as the job-creation engine of our economy. Don't expect this to happen soon.

The $72 million-asset bank announced late Tuesday that last month it sold $1.7 million, about a quarter of the $6.9 million of nonperforming assets it had at the end of the second quarter. An additional $907,000 of nonperformers are expected to close this month.

The three-year-old Solera National Bancorp Inc. in Lakewood, Colo., has struck its first acquisition deal. The $140 million-asset company announced Wednesday that it has entered into an agreement to buy the Lakewood branch of Liberty Savings Bank, a $1.1 billion-asset thrift in Wilmington, Ohio.

The Securities and Exchange Commission wants information about the credit standards at CVB Financial Corp. in Ontario, Calif. The $6.8 billion-asset company disclosed in its quarterly filing on Monday that it received a subpoena from the SEC on July 26.

The Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union in Harrisburg has deployed mortgage software from S1 Corp., a Norcross, Ga., developer of financial technology.

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Merger and acquisition agreements are including more specific and sophisticated provisions for adjusting the deal price, or even letting a buyer back out, if the credit quality of the seller's portfolio deteriorates.

Recent reform legislation coupled with heightened enforcement ferver has given rise to concerns that increased regulatory costs, both implicit and explicit, will make it difficult for small community banks to continue operating and may force them to sell or seek strategic mergers.

Financial institutions have had no shortage of regulatory changes to manage in recent months. While the CARD Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act have occupied the majority of the headlines, there are other regulatory changes the financial sector is trying to navigate.

Sabadell United Bank has completed its merger with TransAtlantic Bank, making it the fourth-largest Florida bank based in Miami-Dade County.

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