Recent proxy battles show that the high-stakes clashes are getting pricey for management teams and irate shareholders.

When making a point to banker groups about how much the week-to-week banking habits of Americans have changed in recent years, one simple question tends to create much side chatter, nods and chuckles.

Concord Bank of St. Louis has named Lance Greunke as interim chief executive and president to replace Tony Feraro, who died in May.

Freed from an enforcement order that led it to sharply reduce its assets, Guaranty Bancorp in Denver is now turning its attention to growth.

BancorpSouth (BXS) has reached a settlement in principle for a class-action lawsuit alleging that the Tupelo, Miss., company violated federal securities law.

Royal Financial in Chicago reported a fiscal third-quarter loss of $421,000, compared to earnings of $41,000 a year earlier, as noninterest expense rose.

Berkshire Hills is paying for its latest acquisition, of Beacon Federal, in a way that protects shareholder returns at the expense of its tangible book value.

Anchor BanCorp is closing two Wisconsin branches and cutting 11 positions as it struggles to return to profitability and repay a line of credit.

Equity Bancshares in Wichita, Kan., has filled its tank to fuel growth. The $600 million-asset company raised $20.4 million in capital that it plans to use for acquisitions and organic growth.

United Financial of Massachusetts is buying Connecticut's New England Banchares in a deal that makes a lot of strategic sense. Yet investors have given the buyer a rousing thumbs-down.

Incensed shareholders and lawsuits triggered by failed say on pay votes aren't the half of it. Just wait until the expected M&A wave unleashes 'say on golden parachute' litigation.

C1 Bank is still waiting for someone to deposit $1 million and drive off with a car, but the free press from the promo — now expanded to include business clients — has enabled the Florida bank to suspend paid advertising on its name change.

Thomas Hoy has led the Glen Falls, N.Y., company since 1997. Thomas Murphy, who will become the company's president next month, is set to succeed Hoy when he steps down.

The Massachusetts company has grown in upstate New York by buying Rome Bancorp and opening about a dozen branches in recent years.

Banco Popular in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is nearing the finish line of its two-year project to rebrand itself in the continental U.S.

As leaders of church and national minority business organizations, few of our congregants or constituents understand or care about the Volcker Rule. Most, however, are concerned about the growing gap in compensation between the working poor and that of the CEOs of major banks, such as Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.

Even after adjusting for tax differences, S Corp banks generally outperform their C Corp peers.

Abacus Federal Savings Bank and more than a dozen of its former employees are facing criminal charges related to a scheme in which it allegedly falsified information on mortgage applications so that unqualified borrowers could secure loans.

Orrstown Financial Services (ORRF) in Shippensburg, Pa., has been hit with a lawsuit alleging that it misled investors about its financial strength during its March 2010 stock offering.

Shareholders frown on United Financial's all-stock deal for healthy bank in good market.