The staff at the Securities and Exchange Commission is working on a proposal to amend the current diversity disclosure rule to require more specificity, including information on the race, gender and ethnicity of board members and nominees. Here's why.

These 25 leaders are using their influence to make banking — and their communities — better.

Among the impressive women you'll want to keep an eye on moving forward are: two new female CEOs at top-40 banks; Mary Mack, who'll now oversee consumer banking at embattled Wells Fargo; and community bank CEOs Mary Anny Scully and Karen Glenn.

Women are arguably even more outnumbered in the upper ranks of finance than in banking, and the executives on this list stand out not only for their performance but for their work to help create a path to parity.

Arkansas regulators have closed the $66.3 million-asset Allied Bank in Mulberry, the fifth institution to fail this year.

First Bancorp in Southern Pines, N.C., has terminated loss-share agreements tied to a pair of failed-bank acquisitions.

Only a dozen banks still owe the government Troubled Asset Relief Program money, and an unspecified number of others including Reliance Bancshares in St. Louis owe investors who bought their Tarp balances. But Reliance has made problem loans vanish and has a credit line in hand to help retire its $62 million Tarp-related debt.

Randolph Bancorp raised $57 million in a mutual-to-stock conversion and is using the proceeds to fund acquisitions — it closed its first-ever deal in July — and dramatically improve its digital capabilities.

Bankers can bolster investor confidence by showing they are taking a disciplined approach to M&A. That involves thorough due diligence, strong rationales for deals and the ability to step away from the table.

The $8.3 billion-asset CVB said Thursday that it would pay $57.5 million in cash and stock for the $416 million-asset parent of Valley Business Bank.

Lisa McDougald, the deputy general counsel at the $222 billion-asset BB&T in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Leon Holschbach, chief executive at Midland States Bancorp, a $3 billion-asset company in Effingham, Ill., were appointed to the board this summer.

Home BancShares co-founder and Chairman John Allison is shrinking his ownership stake in the Conway, Ark., company for estate-planning purposes.

Farmers Capital Bank in Frankfort, Ky., has announced a plan to restructure its balance sheet.

A compliance-at-all-costs mentality, which is the overarching attitude in many banks, results in overspending and overallocating valuable resources to meet both real and perceived compliance standards.

CapStar Financial Holdings in Nashville, Tenn., expects to raise net proceeds of $16.6 million in an initial public offering that it plans to spend on growth and other initiatives — perhaps including M&A.

Banks are dumping their mortgage servicing rights because low rates and new rules make it hard to earn a profit. SunTrust, Flagstar and First South Bancorp in North Carolina are taking the opposite view.

Wellesley Bancorp in Massachusetts has appointed New England banking veteran Kathryn Hinderhofer to its board.

In 2010, lawmakers passed reforms to bring transparency and competition to a swipe fee market that had been devoid of both. Now, they want to undo that progress.

Brookline Bancorp in Boston has promoted its head of commercial real estate lending to leader of its entire banking unit.

Bankers generally expect loan demand to increase over the next year, but global shocks, domestic politics and regional economic variations may be prompting them to prepare for slightly slower growth than before.