The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation closed the $54.7 million-asset Highland Community Bank in Chicago on Friday.

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Seaway Bank and Trust in Chicago has entered into a consent order with state and federal regulators.

The focus on raising the $50 billion-asset threshold determining which banks face the toughest provisions is highlighting interest in letting more community banks enjoy exemptions written into the law.

First Niagara reported a fourth-quarter profit, but the more interesting question was why the Buffalo, N.Y., bank won't fully explain the customer problem that has forced it to set aside more than $20 million.

Independent Bank Corp. of Ionia, Mich., is consolidating 14 of its 74 Michigan branches.

Prosperity Bancshares in Houston posted higher quarterly profit despite investor concern about the company's energy loans.

A small Georgia lender has reached a deal to avoid a threatened involuntary bankruptcy, though the resolution is likely to leave key legal questions on trust-preferred debt and bankruptcy unresolved.

Huntingdon Valley Bank in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., and Victory Bank in Limerick, Pa., have called off a planned merger of equals.

First Horizon National in Memphis reported lower quarterly profits that were largely due to a dip in fee-based income.

First Citizens Banc Corp in Sandusky, Ohio, is changing its name.

ServisFirst Bancshares in Birmingham, Ala., which went public last spring, reported a 27% increase in earnings, to $15 million, in the fourth quarter. It also announced plans to expand into South Carolina.

Independent Bank in Rockland, Mass., reported higher quarterly profits, on lower expenses and revenue increases.

Pinnacle Financial Partners posted strong fourth-quarter numbers thanks to loan growth centered around its Nashville and Knoxville markets in Tennessee.

Local bankers will try to pick up any business that could fall out as a result of the merger. And with one less bank to buy in Southern California, remaining franchises also may command scarcity value.

PacWest Bancorp in Los Angeles reported an increase in fourth-quarter profit, the second full quarter after its April acquisition of CapitalSource Bank, a commercial lender that targeted small and medium-sized businesses.

The $8 billion-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing Thursday that David Hooston had returned to the company after a three-month leave to attend to personal family issues.

Online marketplace lender OnDeck Capital has launched a new platform to better enable institutional investors to buy small business loans OnDeck originates.

Royal Bank of Canada sold its U.S. retail bank a few years ago to PNC. The company is back with a targeted play: City National, a Los Angeles bank that has built its business targeting the rich and working with Hollywood.

BankUnited in Miami Lakes, Fla., reported a drop in quarterly profits, as low yields weighed down the company's growing loan book and it faced some growth-related costs.