After 100 years of having a federal charter, Frost says new reform law has increased the value of state regulation.

Hana Financial Group of Seoul, South Korea, has agreed to buy newly issued shares of common stock, and a 51% ownership interest, in Saehan Bancorp in Los Angeles.

The Texas Bankers Association is irked about the National Credit Union Administration's decision to infuse $60 million into the otherwise insolvent Texans Credit Union.

Anchor BanCorp Wisconsin Inc. in Madison reported another quarterly loss.

The private banking arm of KeyCorp in Cleveland has established a Delaware trust company and hired two veterans from competitors to help run it.

Horizon Bancorp in Michigan City, Ind., has agreed to buy Heartland Bancshares Inc. of Franklin, Ind., in an all-stock deal valued at $14 million.

Liberty Bell Bank has been fighting battles with a former chairman for more than five years. Last month, the bank filed to form a bank holding company, just months after the activist investor was rounded up by U.S. marshals for allegedly defrauding elderly people around Philadelphia.

CapStar Bank in Nashville announced late Thursday that it has struck a deal to acquire the $169 million American Security Bank & Trust Co. in Hendersonville, Tenn., for a mix of cash and stock.

Hudson City Bancorp Inc. said its chairman and chief executive is stepping aside temporarily to attend to an unexpected medical issue, leaving its operating chief to assume those duties for the time being.

Evans Bancorp Inc. in Angola, N.Y., has reported that fourth-quarter income more than doubled from a year ago, to $1.3 million, due to higher net interest income and a lower provision for loan and lease losses.

VIST Financial Corp. in Wyomissing, Pa., said after markets closed Thursday that it lost $24.6 million in the fourth quarter after it wrote down $25 million of goodwill in connection with its pending sale to Tompkins Financial Corp. of Ithaca, N.Y.

Private-equity firms complain about the government dragging its feet in approving their bank deals, but the investors in ECB Bancorp may have found a silver lining.

Add Minnesota Bank & Trust in Edina to the growing list of community banks bulking up in mortgage lending in hopes of capturing market share from larger banks.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt says his 49 counterparts exceeded their authority by pushing for principal reductions. So he’s entered into a separate settlement in which banks would pay $18.6 million.

In a sign of growing optimism about the economy, community banks, credit unions and other lenders approved more small-business loan applications in January than in any other month during the past year, according to an analysis by Biz2credit.

First Financial Service has agreed to sell four of its branches in Indiana as the Elizabethtown, Ky., company works to increase its capital ratios to meet a consent order.

The gap between healthy banks and those that remain in the doldrums will fuel acquisition activity in the coming years, a Virginia investment management firm predicts.

Regulators have ordered the banking unit of AB&T Financial Corp. in Gastonia, N.C., to improve its asset quality and evaluate its allowance for loan losses.

The simmering battle between banks and credit unions is heating up again, as credit unions revive their push in Congress to allow their industry to make more small business loans.

With numerous attractive institutions and robust growth markets, the state could kickstart a round of traditional deals nationwide. The only problem? Texas bankers also know they're attractive, and the most comely banks aren't interested in low-priced dates.