Banco Santander SA, Spain's biggest bank, named Javier Marin as chief executive officer to replace Alfredo Saenz, who resigned.

Folks often ask me how we come up with ideas for the stories published in American Banker Magazine. My answer is that there are all kinds of ways, and this issue perfectly illustrates several of them.

The top 200 community banks and thrifts as ranked by three-year average ROE.

The success of early microfinance programs has attracted big money, and big problems, to the business. A new study details how the mission of microlending has gotten off track, and why helping impoverished women is getting harder to do.

Generations Bank CEO stops in for coffee, steps out with idea for new auto loan program.

Be proud, Gen-X bankers. You are the "hybrid" breed of old school and new school in an industry that needs both, consultant Richard Henry writes.

JPMorgan Chase's Elaine Agather, RBS Citizens' Daniel Fitzpatrick and other bankers who take community engagement to a new level.

Regulators shut down Douglas County Bank in Douglasville, Ga., and Parkway Bank in Lenoir, N.C. Between them they had assets of $425 million and will cost the Deposit Insurance Fund an estimated $105 million.

First Financial Northwest (FFNW) in Renton, Wash., has been freed from an enforcement action.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took enforcement actions against six banks last month that tied to their capital, compliance and financial condition, according to a series of orders released Friday.

BNC Bancorp (BNCN) in Thomasville, N.C., plans to buy back its Troubled Asset Relief Program shares from investors who bought them in a Treasury Department auction last summer.

Patience is wearing thin among investors with banks' lack of prospects for producing returns, as a hedge fund official's call for the sale of American River in California shows.

As the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau works on finalizing mortgage rules, Kelly Cochran, the assistant director for regulations, says it is taking concerns about burdens on small lenders and access to credit "very seriously."

HCBF will merge BSA Financial's $168 million-asset Bank of St. Augustine into Harbor Community Bank when the deal closes, the companies said Friday.

Jacksonville Bancorp is preparing to offer shareholders the right to buy $5 million of stock. The $565 million-asset company said Friday that it will give shareholders the right to buy stock for 50 cents a share, the same pricing of a $50 million private placement in that concluded last December.

Hancock Holding in Gulfport, Miss., has raised the ire of analysts and investors in an unusual way — by unveiling a plan to cut costs over the next two years.

Provident Financial Services (PFS) in Iselin, N.J., reported lower quarterly earnings as margins tightened and noninterest income fell.

Central Pacific Financial (CPF) in Honolulu reported a jump in first-quarter profit as its asset quality improved and it recorded a tax benefit worth nearly $120 million.

Iberiabank (IBKC) in Lafayette, La., eked out a profit in the first quarter despite a series of large charges. The $12.9 billion-asset company earned $697,000, compared with $19.4 million a year earlier.

Rising revenue propelled first-quarter results at Sterling Bancorp (STL) in New York. Earnings at the $2.8 billion-asset company rose 13% from a year earlier, to $5.3 million, or 17 cents a share.