More than 30 state trade associations have joined the Independent Community Bankers of America in urging Congress to extend the Transaction Account Guarantee program, which offers banks unlimited deposit insurance on transaction accounts.

An effort is gaining momentum to require banks that want municipal business to lend more in low-income neighborhoods. And it's not just mega-banks being targeted — smaller banks are seen as fairing worse in this type of lending.

In what would be its first acquisition in nearly a decade, Peoples Bancorp (PEBO) in Marietta, Ohio, announced Tuesday that it is buying Sistersville Bancorp in West Virginia for $9.8 million in cash.

BNC, of High Point, N.C., would pay $35 million for First Trust, its fifth deal in the Carolinas in nine months.

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A Texas investor has filed a suit against former top executives at a failed Tennessee bank seeking to recover the nearly $1.2 million he pumped into the bank during a 2010 stock sale.

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.