A strengthening housing market lifted Washington Federal (WAFD) in Seattle in the first quarter.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Martin Gruenberg said regulators are homing in on concerns expressed by community banks in discussions on finalizing the capital rule.

Pinnacle Financial Partners (PNFP) in Nashville, Tenn., reported record quarterly profit after noninterest income jumped.

The most notable quotes from American Banker stories of the previous week. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations in the Comments fields at the bottom of each slide.

BBCN said in a press release Tuesday that the acquisition would position the $5.6 billion-asset company as "the leading Korean-American bank in Chicago" while providing it with entry into the Washington, D.C., market.

Avoid closing locations solely based on performance, test drive outreach programs and consider other options, such as amending hours, before shuttering an underperforming location.

Financial Institutions in Warsaw, N.Y., has named a new chief financial officer.

The president and chief executive of Rocky Mountain Bank in Billings, Mont., is moving on to Herring Bank in Amarillo, Texas.

C&F Financial (CFFI) in West Point, Va., has snagged Gail Letts, an executive from SunTrust Banks (STI), to lead its business in the state's capital.

When Iberiabank lowered the amount of money it expects to receive in FDIC loss-sharing, it meant some credits are performing better than expected — and that some losses might show up after the FDIC agreement runs out.

Policymakers clearly don't want to harm small banks, but it's difficult to see how they can insulate us from the macroeconomic effects of some of the proposals being considered.

Fees from advising wealthy households propelled First Republic Bank (FRC) in the first quarter.

CFO Rene Jones says the two companies will "do whatever we need to do" to complete the merger, which has been delayed by the Federal Reserve Board's concerns with M&T's anti-money-laundering policies.

Expect the rate of terminated enforcement actions to increase in coming months as more banks get a handle on their problems, industry observers say.

The Treasury Department plans to auction its holdings in eight more banks as it continues to unwind Troubled Asset Relief Program holdings.

Nearly a third of mutual thrifts recently told the American Bankers Association that their regulator lacked a good understanding of their business.

The requirement is a symptom of a larger problem: Inherently local knowledge is needed for most of the regulations tasked to regulators in Washington.

Policymakers came back from the Easter recess loaded for bear, as President Obama released his budget and Senate Democrats dug into the independent foreclosure reviews. Here are the six stories in regulation and reform that you shouldn't have missed last week.

Higher revenues and lower expenses provided a boost to first-quarter results at Webster Financial (WBS) in Waterbury, Conn.

The $1.4 billion-asset unit of First Mariner Bancorp (FMAR) said Monday that the FDIC had terminated an April 2009 cease-and-desist order requiring the bank to comply with fair-lending practices.