The CEO of UMB Financial believes the time has come to rethink branch technology, to speed service and cut costs.

Vincent Delie recently mentioned Maryland, Pittsburgh and Cleveland as target markets, though he expressed lukewarm interest in Philadelphia.

Astoria Federal Savings in Lake Success, N.Y., has hired an HSBC executive to lead its retail division.

Shareholders and regulators are on the warpath against executive compensation they regard as excessive or poorly structured. Senior bankers and directors, like their colleagues elsewhere in the corporate world, are struggling to design pay plans that encourage managers to innovate while discouraging excessive risk-taking. Further complicating the task are the sometimes competing agendas of investors and rule-makers, as well as the uncertainty surrounding the many Dodd-Frank pay rules yet to be written. Following is a look at some of hot-button items shaping executive compensation during the current proxy season.

HomeTrust Bancshares in Asheville, N.C., has agreed to buy BankGreenville Financial in South Carolina.

CoBank in Denver reported a decrease in quarterly profit as loan yields fell and provision for loan losses increased.

Experts say the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau backed away from stiffer requirements after two powerful consumer groups raised fears that they would drive small banks and credit unions out of the remittance business.

The longer yields stay low, "the bigger the problem becomes for banks," UMB CEO Mariner Kemper says. A low cost of funds helps UMB resist temptations presented by cutthroat competition and looser loan terms, Kemper adds.

The Texas Bankers Association has selected Ignacio Urrabazo, the chief executive of Commerce Bank in Laredo, to become its new chairman.

Community banks that expanded student lending to improve earnings are discovering why their larger brethren have backed off from the business: servicing and compliance challenges abound.

More lenders are willing to make second-lien loans because of hot demand and greater yield, even as regulators warn against risks in the leveraged-lending market.

Big banks and regionals have been pounded by denial of service attacks but small banks less so. Bank Technology News staffers discuss what community bankers should do to prepare for the risk that cyber-criminals will target them next.

The banking industry's pace of expansion accelerated in March after bankers reported more activity in auto lending and mortgages.

Instead of downsizing, banks should reposition big branch networks to protect their ground from nonbanks and tech companies trying to infiltrate the financial services space.

Flagstar Bancorp (FBC) in Troy, Mich., will pay $110 million to settle allegations that it misrepresented the quality of more than $1 billion of private label mortgage-backed securities it sold to investors.

Two deals lifted First Community Bancshares in Bluefield, Va., in the first quarter.

The $1.6 billion-asset company said Thursday that Vincent Tozzi will also resign on May 31 as treasurer to pursue another opportunity.

New York investment bank MLV, expecting lots of bank M&A activity in the Southeast and Southwest, has hired an expert on those regions, David Bishop from Stifel Nicolaus, to start a research unit.

Sb1 Federal Credit Union in Philadelphia has hired Robert Werner, a former chief operating officer of Two River Community Bank, as its president and CEO.