Forcht Bank in Lexington, Ky., is set to open its first in-store branch. The $950 million-asset bank has an agreement to open a branch inside a Kroger grocery store in Louisville, Ky., the Business First Journal reported in its online edition Tuesday.

Bank of Virginia (BOVA) in Midlothian, Va., will invest in Stonegate Mortgage’s residential mortgage-loan participation program.

The nation's biggest asset manager now owns roughly 6% of the outstanding stock in UMB, the companies disclosed in Tuesday filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Fed said Tuesday that it terminated a written agreement with Progressive on Feb. 1. The agreement barred Progressive or its $136 million-asset ProGrowth Bank in Nicollet, Minn., from paying dividends or taking on new debt without approval.

Favorable views of market conditions gained momentum at the end of the year as lawmakers reached a compromise to stave off the fiscal cliff.

Smaller banks are beginning to see more revenue from service charges as they experiment with new fees and products.

With the price of farmland surging, demand from small farmers for guaranteed mortgages is also way up. Now banks want Congress to raise the cap on those loans.

First Horizon National in Memphis, Tenn., has expanded its dealings in municipal bonds.

Community bankers should continue to bolster lending despite challenges created by compliance with a host of new Dodd-Frank regulations, Federal Reserve Gov. Elizabeth Duke said Tuesday.

Improving the branch experience could fail to increase foot traffic, but will boost customer satisfaction, loyalty and, ideally, advocacy.

The Treasury Department is planning to wind down its Troubled Asset Relief Program investments in six financial institutions by auctioning off approximately $358 million in preferred stock and subordinated debt investments.

Woodforest National Bank in Woodlands, Texas, has promoted Julie Mayrant to president of its retail operations, according to a news report.

Naugatuck Valley Financial in Connecticut has added Orville Aarons as a director. Aarons is president of O. Aarons & Co., an investment bank, and had been a chief lending officer at The Community's Bank.

Kind words by Stewart McClure, the head of Somerset Hills Bancorp, for Kevin Cummings, the CEO of rival Investors Bancorp, are part of a mutual admiration society budding in New Jersey banking.

Orrstown Financial Services (ORRF) reached a legal settlement with PL Capital over a requirement that the outside investor said wrongly benefited management.

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The ABA is raising concerns about a credit union's potential plans to change its field of membership from just Lutherans to serve all Christian denominations.

Terminations of bank deals have dramatically slowed since 2009, when a third of the announced deals were called off. Still, buyers should give regulators a heads-up and leave ample time to finalize details.

Dodd-Frank repealed the ban on paying interest on business checking accounts. No longer necessary to circumvent that restriction, sweep accounts with overnight repos can still protect and retain high-balance depositors.

U.S. Bancorp's (USB) wealth management arm is adding advisors on Florida's Gulf Coast, mostly from large rivals.