The City Holding (W.Va.) deal for Virginia Savings was eye-catching for its simplicity, but deals between healthy banks will remain the exception for now.

More banks have sold problem assets to private-equity groups this year, while others unloaded their banks in hopes of unlocking the value in nonperforming assets. Some believe selling bad loans to nonbanks could shore up valuations by removing the challenges of regulatory oversight.

City Holding, one of the largest banking companies based in West Virginia, has agreed to acquire Virginia Savings Bancorp for about $13.4 million, giving it an entrée into Virginia.

Capitol Bancorp Ltd.'s credit costs are shrinking, but its capital hole is only getting deeper. The $2.5 billion-asset company, which has dual headquarters in Phoenix and Lansing, Mich., reported on Thursday a loss of $22.8 million for the third quarter, a 56% improvement from the loss it reported a year earlier.

First Niagara has to solve the riddle of how to pay for HSBC's branches in New York and Connecticut without hurting shareholders, selling off too many assets or mistiming the helter-skelter stock markets.

Sometimes a quarterly report includes a noteworthy item that happened after the quarter ended. Porter Bancorp Inc. in Louisville, Ky., had three of them.

First Midwest Bank has agreed to use anti-fraud technology from PhoneFactor to improve security for online banking.

Credit unions have benefited from Bank Transfer Day and consumer anger over bank fees, but the data on membership and deposit gains offered by the Credit Union National Association looks inflated.

Hampton Roads Bankshares Inc. in Norfolk, Va., has completed the sale of a Gateway Bank branch to Blue Ridge Bankshares Inc. in Luray, Va.

State regulators closed the $62.4 million-asset Community Bank of Rockmart in Georgia on Thursday, the 88th failure this year.

Through fever waves of populist anger including the Occupy Wall Street protests, there has been no sign that disgusted customers are draining the giant banks of their deposits.

First PacTrust Bancorp Inc. in Chula Vista, Calif., reported that third-quarter earnings fell 82% from a year earlier, to $506,000, after income from lending fell and expenses jumped.

Two banking companies owned by North American Financial Holdings — TIB Financial and Capital Bank — posted turnarounds in quarterly earnings after their takeover and recapitalization.

Two former executives of Orion Bank, Angel Guerzon and Thomas Hebble, were banned from banking by the Federal Reserve Board due to their participation in "unsafe and unsound practices, breaches of fiduciary duty, and violations of law and regulation," the agency said in a press release.

Four community bankers on the hunt for acquisitions warned prospective sellers that they will have little say in how much they get paid.

Some banks are starting to notice the poor customers they have long ignored. Regions Financial Corp. is one of several banks expanding its check-cashing and the other "alternative" financial services that have long been offered by Wal-Mart and other non-banks.

The Justice Department on Thursday ordered First Niagara Financial Group to sell 26 of the branches it has agreed to buy from HSBC Holdings. The branches are in the Buffalo area and have $1.6 billion of deposits.

Consumer groups that have already raised questions about Capital One Financial Corp.'s purchase of Internet bank ING Direct USA have now turned their attention to the bank's purchase of the credit card portfolio of HSBC Holdings PLC.

The branch banking model is outdated, and not just because many still use pneumatic tubes at the drive-through lane.

Families that own capital-starved banks are facing the decision whether to raise capital from outside investors — saving the banks but diluting their own stakes — or to keep pumping money into them to keep them alive.