Americas

WASHINGTON — The Financial Stability Oversight Council moved a step closer Thursday to identifying MetLife as the fourth nonbank firm viewed by regulators as a systemic threat.

First Niagara Financial Group in Buffalo, N.Y., has consolidated several consumer-banking business lines into one department.

A large shareholder at Valley Community Bank is objecting to the Pleasanton, Calif., company's sale to FNB Bancorp in South San Francisco.

A judge has ruled that the involuntary bankruptcy of FMB Bancshares in Lakeland, Ga., may proceed, a decision that could embolden more trust-preferred creditors to pursue a similar strategy.

BBVA Compass Bancshares in Birmingham, Ala., plans to hire 10 community relations officers to help improve its community reinvestment record.

Howard Bancorp in Ellicott City, Md., raised nearly $500,000 in capital after management and directors exercised warrants to buy common stock.

Congressional Bancshares in Bethesda, Md., has agreed to buy American Bank Holdings in Bethesda.

Intervest Bancshares in New York has officially exited the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

FERGUSON, Mo. — A family restaurant near the center of where much of the violence in this city has occurred is still open, thanks in part to a $5,000 0% loan from Alliance CU.

Jane Thompson, the former head of the financial services division at Wal-Mart Stores, has joined the board of OnDeck, a small business lending company in New York.