EMEA

PNC Financial Services Group Inc., of Pittsburgh, officially entered the Atlanta market over the weekend after closing a deal to acquire Flagstar Bancorp Inc.'s 27 branches there.

In need of new capital, First Cherokee State Bank is looking to differentiate itself by opening a casual coffee house stocked with wealth advisors.

State Bank Financial Corp. in Atlanta reported that its third-quarter earnings nearly doubled from a quarter earlier, to $17.1 million, due largely to higher accretion on loans covered by loss-share agreements with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

State regulators closed the $62.4 million-asset Community Bank of Rockmart in Georgia on Thursday, the 88th failure this year.

Four community bankers on the hunt for acquisitions warned prospective sellers that they will have little say in how much they get paid.

Aided by a sharp drop in problem loans, Synovus Financial Corp. in Columbus, Ga., reported a third-quarter profit of $15.7 million — its first quarterly profit in more than three years.

Two community banks in Georgia, and one in Florida, were closed late Friday at a cost of more than $130 million to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Colony Bankcorp Inc. in Fitzgerald, Ga., eked out a third-quarter profit, though it also announced Wednesday that its president and chief executive had resigned.

State regulators closed three banks along the East Coast and one in Illinois on Friday night, bringing this year's failure tally to 80.

The president of a small Atlanta-based bank testified to Congress on Wednesday that the derivatives provisions in the Dodd-Frank Act could hinder the bank's ability to manage risk and serve its clients.