State regulators closed three banks along the East Coast late Friday afternoon: Blue Ridge Savings Bank in Asheville, N.C.; Piedmont Community Bank in Gray, Ga.; and First State Bank in Cranford, N.J.

Under pressure from investors to improve its performance, HF Financial Corp. in Sioux Falls, S.D., announced Friday that it is replacing its longtime Chairman and Chief Executive Curtis L. Hage, effective immediately.

L.A. team produces hilarious parody of Warren's populist candidacy, and the portrayal of the creator of the CFPB may help the Massachusetts Senate candidate.

Sellers of leveraged bank loans want to draw institutional investors into an arena in danger of losing its traditional buyers.

First BanCorp. in San Juan, Puerto Rico said it had brought on as its nonexecutive chairman Roberto Herencia, who had been the president and chief executive of Midwest Banc Holdings in Melrose Park, Ill., from 2009 to 2010.

BancFirst Corp. in Oklahoma City reported a third-quarter profit of $12.6 million, up 6.7% from the same period in 2010. Earnings per share rose 8%, to 81 cents, beating consensus analysts' estimates by nine cents.

Buoyed by improved asset quality, Webster Financial Corp. in Waterbury, Conn., said Friday that its third-quarter profit more than doubled from the same period last year, to $41.5 million.

The board of Cardinal Bankshares in Floyd, Va., issued a letter defending the company and management after an activist investor threatens to defy the establishment.

The economic pain inflicted on millions of citizens and businesses by the collapse and eventual bailouts of some of Wall Street’s largest financial firms reveals why community banks should continue to distinguish themselves from systemically risky financial firms.

FJ Capital Management said Thursday that it had received a "significant investment" by Bridge Equities LLC.

First ULB Corp., the Oakland, Calif., parent company for United Labor Bank, has filed to hold an initial public offering.

The Federal Reserve on Thursday announced a prompt corrective action against Anchor Commercial Bank in Juno Beach, Fla., after the bank failed to provide the Fed with an acceptable capital restoration plan.

TCF Financial said Thursday that it is acquiring Gateway One Lending & Finance, an Anaheim, Calif., company that uses its relationships with more than 3,100 dealers to make car loans to consumers in 30 states.

More than 85% of community banks say that their overdraft programs have remained profitable despite rule changes that require banks to receive customers' consent before approving overdrafts on debit transactions.

HUD is seeking comments on a proposed rule that would allow Farm Credit System lenders the ability to make FHA-backed loans. Since Farm Credit is already a GSE, bankers oppose the proposed rule.

First Midwest Bancorp Inc. said Thursday it will acquire about $185 million of deposits and a branch in suburban Chicago from Old National Bancorp.

Shares of Commerce Bancshares Inc. were down sharply midday Thursday after the Kansas City, Mo., company reported earnings that fell short of analysts' estimates and warned that new rules limiting debit-card fees could take a bite out of fourth-quarter profits.

So 10 lawyers and an investment banker got together in a room at AmericanWest … No, it's not a joke. They helped revitalize a troubled bank and now have an award from the Turnaround Management Association to prove it.

Wells Fargo & Co. has bolstered its mergers and acquisitions group with the hiring of two new managing directors.

Bank of the Ozarks Inc. reported income totaling $83.8 million for the nine months that ended Sept. 30, representing an almost 78% increase from the same period in 2010.