M&A consolidation, improved portfolio performance and legislation leveling the playing field provide incentive for midsize banks to relaunch card programs.

The proposed sale of Atlantic Coast Financial in Jacksonville, Fla., did not sail with investors. Shareholders rejected Bond Street Holdings' $13.1 million, or $5-per-share, offer on Tuesday.

C&F Financial (CFFI) has agreed to acquire Central Virginia Bankshares. Both are in the Richmond, Va., area.

The Treasury Department has begun auctioning more than $51 million of stock that it acquired through the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering reforms to force-placed insurance aimed at giving the public a better deal. So why isn't it letting the public in on its planning?

Bank investors may be softening their antipathy for long earn-back periods. When Union First Market Bankshares promised five years of dilution – but a big boost to earnings – from its deal for StellarOne, its stock declined only a little.

Community banks can't cost cut their way to prosperity, though it certainly is a step in the right direction, a recent Fiserv study found.

A top executive at Heartland Financial in Dubuque, Iowa, is leaving for a job in the manufacturing sector.

Pennsylvania Dutch country could get the first de novo bank to open in the U.S. in more than two years.

The $168 million-asset asset lender is offering as many as 500,000 shares at $10 per share, it announced Monday. The stock closed Friday at $9.85 a share; it had risen 1.5%, to $10, at midday Monday.

West Bancorp. (WTBA) in Des Moines, Iowa, is taking advantage of low interest rates to buy back a chunk of its stock.

The banking unit of FNB United in Asheboro, N.C., has been freed from a regulatory order and has completed its integration of the Bank of Granite.

Meta Financial Group (CASH) in Sioux Falls, S.D., plans to raise up to $20 million by selling common stock.

Deloitte Corporate Finance has acquired McColl Partners, a middle-market investment bank founded by retired Bank of America Chief Executive Hugh McColl.

Union First Market Bankshares in Richmond, Va., has agreed to acquire StellarOne in Charlottesville, Va.

Wilshire Bancorp in Los Angeles has agreed to buy BankAsiana in Palisades Park, N.J.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed the $437.3 million-asset Mountain National Bank in Sevierville, Tenn., on Friday.

Big banks grab headlines with large commitments to small businesses but, when compared total assets, many community banks are setting the pace.

Loan yields are still healthy relative to funding costs. It’s the pileup of low-rate bonds on bank balance sheets that has crimped profit margins.

Shareholders who hoped proxy firms ISS and Glass Lewis would help them decide on Bond Street's controversial $5-per-share offer for Atlantic Coast Financial in Florida are out of luck: ISS says "aye," while Glass Lewis says "nay."