Retail & Commercial

The $755 million-asset New Mexico Banquest announced Friday it would be acquired by Strategic Growth Bancorp, an El Paso company founded by father-and-son team Bill and Pablo Sanders.

Home Federal Bancorp (HOME) in Nampa, Idaho, said Friday that it is closing four branches in Oregon as part of its ongoing effort to reduce overhead and improve efficiency.

Ameris Bancorp (ABCB) in Moultrie, Ga., will redeem preferred shares it had issued to the Treasury Department as part of the Trouble Asset Relief Program.

Citigroup has fallen on hard times in recent years, but it has still managed to train the chief executives of the country's biggest banks and card networks.

The expansion by small credit card issuers comes as some of the biggest lenders continue to reengineer their businesses after being sideswiped during the recession, and amid weakness in consumer demand.

The mood at a consumer finance conference Friday was one of anxiety about the pace of the housing recovery, the onslaught of new rules and the federal government's long-term role in housing finance.

Consumer advocates say recent data shows that banks must do more in disadvantaged areas in cities such as New York. A closer look, however, shows improvement in certain CRA-related areas.

Why does an industry so often criticized for charging high fees to low-income consumers think it can win over critics by adding members of the 1% to the payroll?

Domenick Cama, the COO of Investors, helped honor Christopher Martin, the chairman and CEO of Provident Financial Services, at a human relations award dinner in New Jersey this week.

A survey released Friday found that business owners have become more concerned about the future health of their firms — perhaps because of fears about the fiscal cliff.