Americas

Alice Frazier had been chief operating officer at Cardinal Financial, which was bought earlier this year by United Bankshares.

Meridian had been looking to expand in certain Boston suburbs before agreeing to buy Meetinghouse Bancorp for $17.8 million.

The company will also gain its first branches in New Mexico after it buys Peoples Inc.

The Canadian bank twice sweetened its bid for PrivateBancorp, raising the stakes. Now it must gain traction in the hypercompetitive Chicago market while hunting for more acquisitions.

ES Bancshares, which recently sold a branch near Poughkeepsie, plans to open second branches in the two boroughs.

CIBC plans to spend two years focusing on internal growth at PrivateBank except for some targeted wealth management acquisitions, but ultimately capital outlays or takeovers will be necessary to meet its growth ambitions.

Regulators cited "unsafe and unsound" practices at the credit union, which has assets of more than $76 million and turned a small profit in each of the last two years.

The billionaire investor agreed to buy shares at a deep discount and provide a fresh credit line for the Canadian mortgage company, tapping a formula he used to prop up lenders from Goldman Sachs to Bank of America.

The $23 million-asset credit union has also extended an existing partnerhsip with Fiserv for credit and debit processing, and more.

The Virginia company told investors that Morgan Davis, its president, will soon succeed founding CEO Robert Aston, who is retiring.