The best-connected bankers in town combine heartfelt community involvement with hard-headed pragmatism about the importance of personal relationships when doing business. American Banker Magazine Editor Heather Landy discusses what others can learn from their examples.

The $2 billion-asset company in Rockville, Conn., said Monday it plans to repurchase as many as 10% of its roughly 2.7 million shares outstanding.

Shareholders of OptimumBank Holdings (OPHC) have approved a reverse stock split aimed at preserving the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company's Nasdaq listing.

Enterprise Financial Services has completed the purchase of a mortgage business from F&M Bank and Trust.

Miguel Blesa, a former executive of Caja Madrid, is in Spanish prison after being accused of arranging to buy Florida's City National Bank at an inflated price.

Pacific Mercantile Bancorp (PMBC) has postponed its annual meeting after it discovered that it awarded too many stock option grants to its former chief executive.

Fulton Financial (FULT) in Lancaster, Pa., announced that its longtime chief financial officer will retire at the end of this year.

The CFPB's revised final rule on remittances made it easier on bankers, but it will still have a significant — though unclear — impact on international money transfers.

As investor Jay Sidhu and Atlantic Coast Financial intensify their fight over the Florida company's deal to sell to Bond Street Holdings, the market has priced a higher deal value into the stock. Atlantic Coast warns that no such bump-up is coming.

Commerce Bancshares is the latest bank to announce plans to buy a small bank in Oklahoma, which boasts one of the nation's lowest unemployment rates

Brennan Ryan, a partner at Nelson Mullins, ran the equivalent of several marathons with his wife and a friend in the Marathon des Sables to raise money for Hemophilia of Georgia.

The regulator of federal credit unions is promising to take steps to curtail high-cost, short-term loans, in the wake of tough action by banking regulators.

Hampton Roads Bancshares (HMPR) in Virginia Beach, Va., has named Charles Johnston chairman.

AmeriServ Financial in Johnstown, Pa., has begun another stock buyback.

With the ever-increasing regulation burden, community banks with small staffs struggle to keep up with new and changing rules. Some have deployed software to streamline their compliance to-do lists. Bank of the Sierra in Porterville, Calif., is one of them.

The Federal Reserve has ordered Bank of Montreal's U.S. unit to strengthen compliance with laws designed to deter money laundering.

Sierra Vista Bank in Folsom, Calif., has added $1.5 million in capital from the Taylor International Fund.

Flagstar Bancorp (FBC) in Troy, Mich., announced that its chief executive, Michael Tierney, has stepped aside after just eight months in the post.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is seeking to recover $48 million from officers and directors of a Florida bank that collapsed in 2010 following heavy defaults on commercial real estate loans.

Mars National Bank near Pittsburgh has drafted a local boy-turned-major-leaguer, Neil Walker of the Pirates, as its pitchman.