Retail & Commercial

Business activity in the banking sector accelerated slightly in October, rising for the fifth straight month, according to industry executives surveyed for American Banker's latest Index of Banking Activity.

The $1.2 billion-asset First Business said Monday that it sold 1.1 million shares of common stock at a price of $23 a share. First Business said recently that it would use proceeds from the sale to redeem some of its subordinated debt and to fund growth.

The $1.75 billion-asset company disclosed late last week that its purchase agreements with ValStone Partners, a private-equity firm in Michigan, had been terminated. Calls to Capitol (CBCRQ) and ValStone were not immediately returned.

Bob Kottler, an executive at Iberiabank, hopes the Consumer Bankers Association can help shape the agency’s rulemaking process in 2013.

In the first of the FDIC's 39 suits against bank executives, it has won a jury verdict declaring three former IndyMac executives breached their fiduciary duties by lending recklessly to home builders during the housing boom.

The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a bill that would extend a crisis-era program that guarantees certain business accounts.

Todd Park is hardly a civil service Yes man. He's a presidential scholar with a Harvard degree and two successful start-ups under his belt.

The money a household has to deposit into a bank account would decrease by an average of almost 55% if U.S. tax cuts are allowed to expire, an analysis from Market Rates Insight found.

HSBC (HBC) is overhauling its unit that oversees compliance with laws designed to deter financial crime, and putting a former Treasury Department official in charge of it.

Congressional approval for a two-year extension would, among other things, prevent more uncertainty, minimize deposit concentration and maximize financial stability.