Americas

First Merchants Corp. in Muncie, Ind., announced Friday that is planning to exit the Troubled Asset Relief Program using a combination of proceeds from a recent stock offering and a low-interest loan from the Treasury Department's Small Business Lending Fund.

Bank of North Carolina in Thomasville, N.C., announced Thursday that it is buying Regent Bank in Greenville, S.C., for $9.8 million.

Whitney's sale to Hancock put it in direct battlegrounds for business with Iberiabank.

Equity Bank in Andover, Kan., is bulking up in its home state with deals to acquire a small bank in Lawrence and four branches in Topeka from a Missouri bank that is exiting the market.

Fast-growing Signature Bank in New York announced Thursday that it has opened a new office in Manhattan and recruited a team of bankers from HSBC USA to join one of its private-client banking offices in Queens.

Heritage Oaks Bancorp in Paso Robles, Calif., has named longtime California banking executive Simone Lagomarsino as its new president and chief executive officer and as CEO of its subsidiary, Heritage Oaks Bank.

Capitol Federal Financial Inc. in Topeka, Kan., has decided to wait until its one-year anniversary as a 100% stock-owned company before before pursuing a stock buyback program.

BlueRidge Bank in Frederick, Md., is expanding its operations in the Baltimore metropolitan area by converting its year-old commercial loan office there into a full-service branch.

For CrossFirst, the last three years have been filled with perseverance. It spent three years trying to raise capital and 13 months cleaning up a troubled bank before regulators would allow it to merge it with its de novo bank.

Just days after announcing plans to raise $10 million in a preferred stock offering, BofI Holding Inc. in San Diego now says it intends to raise $18 million.