Waypoint Real Estate Group, an investment firm focused on foreclosed homes in the U.S., has secured a $65 million loan from Citigroup (NYSE:C) to buy additional properties to turn into rentals.

Underserved consumers need access to high-quality small loans from financial institutions that are based on sound underwriting and include tools for budgeting and saving.

As new banking standards come into focus, the debate rages on about whether they will strengthen the financial system or merely bury it in red tape.

Polonia Bancorp in Huntington Valley, Pa., is giving investors a chance to buy more of its stock after a planned public offering started sluggishly.

BNC Bancorp in High Point, N.C., has completed its acquisition of KeySource Financial nearly 10 months after announcing the deal.

Three Ohio credit unions have completed a rare three-institution merger to form Pathways Financial Credit Union.

Broadway Financial (BYFC) in Los Angeles has increased its 2011 loss by 45%, to $15.4 million, after restating its financial results.

Congress has punched traditional bankers in the nose, and if we do nothing in the next 50 days, they will continue this abuse with impunity.

The Missouri Division of Finance closed the $282.3 million-asset Truman Bank in St. Louis on Friday. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. entered into an agreement with Simmons First National Bank in Pine Bluff, Ark., to buy the bank's assets and assume its $245.7 million in deposits.

First Bancshares (FBSI) in Mountain Grove, Mo., said that fewer troubled loans helped it turn a profit in the fiscal fourth quarter that ended June 30.

The FDIC is trying to help bankers prep for exams and more clearly understand the results as part of a broader effort at improving relations, Martin Gruenberg, the agency's acting Chairman, said.

Level One Bancorp in Farmington Hills, Mich., is applying its experience working on failed banks to buy and integrate one that is merely struggling. Patrick Fehring, the company's CEO, says that experience integrating failed banks has prepared Level One to buy the struggling Oxford Bank.

The Basel III capital proposals would severely restrict already weak lending at community banks and has to be changed, panelists said at American Banker's Regulatory Symposium. But international politics and legal requirements will make them hard to change, they acknowledged.

Mary Miller, the U.S. Treasury under secretary for domestic finance, praised the Dodd-Frank Act in a speech at American Banker's Regulatory Symposium Friday.

Regulators should re-examine how they classify deposits, or more banks could be classified as troubled. That was the view of a panel on the Transaction Account Guarantee program at American Banker's Regulatory Symposium.

Tri-Valley Bank in San Ramon, Calif., has completed a private placement that it said will shore up regulatory capital and support growth.

Prosecutors overreached in suing Luther Burbank Savings, which has agreed to settle charges its single-family mortgages were discriminatory, the bank's lawyer said at American Banker's Regulatory Symposium. He's wrong, a Justice official replied.

Oriental Financial Group in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is looking to raise $36 million of common equity.

Heritage Financial (HFWA) is buying Northwest Commercial Bank of Lakewood, Wash.

Slavie Federal Savings Bank in Bel Air, Md., is taking steps to shore up its regulatory capital.