Improved asset quality and a surge in mortgage lending powered HomeStreet Bank (HMST) in Seattle to record earnings in 2012.

TrustAtlantic Bank has agreed to buy a branch from fellow North Carolina lender Harrington Bank.

Identify the megabanks' overpriced products and services, the customers they can't or won't serve. Use outside infrastructure to adapt quickly. B of A, Citi and other financial services oligopolists are highly vulnerable to competition.

Sections of Dodd-Frank and the JOBS Act have made allowances for certain community banks but, whether by design or oversight, have left small thrifts to fend for themselves.

First National Bank and Trust in Newtown, Pa., has given its president the additional title of chief executive.

Net interest margins continued to come under pressure in the fourth quarter. Net interest income, aided by loan growth, held up better.

A unit of Palmetto Bancshares in Greenville, S.C., has shed an enforcement order with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

What they lack in deep pockets, small banks often make up for in agility and a willingness to try new technologies. Bank Technology News presents the top community bank IT projects of 2012.

Promontory Interfinancial Network is adding Bank Assetpoint to its suite of products, a service designed to be a one-stop shop for bankers and real estate investors to exchange loans and REO.

U.S. Century Bank, the nation's largest undercapitalized bank, is close to a deal that would give a controlling stake to local investors.

The $4.4 billion-asset company in Indiana, Pa., said Friday that it has named Fred Morelli Jr., a business advisor, and Frank Palermo Jr., a certified public accountant, directors.

FirstMerit's Sandra Pierce has two tough jobs. Overseeing the bank's expansion into her home state of Michigan, while leading the financial advisory board picked to rescue its biggest city.

The $62 million-asset bank, which is owned by 28 Native American tribes, Alaska native corporations and tribal organizations, said Friday that it had hired Tom Ogaard as its president and chief executive, succeeding David Gilman.

The Federal Reserve Board has terminated enforcement actions against Oregon Community Bank & Trust in Oregon, Wis., and Security Financial Bank and its holding company in Durand, Wis.

The president and chief executive of MetroCorp Bancshares (MCBI) in Houston will be taking on an expanded role.

TowneBank in Suffolk, Va., has acquired The Clement Companies, an insurance agency in Greenville, N.C.

Citizens Community Bancorp (CZWI) in Eau Claire, Wisc., has shed its enforcement order with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Provident Financial Services (PFS) of Jersey City beat fourth-quarter earnings expectations as it lowered its loan-loss provision and profited from asset sales.

Consolidation has left one of the nation's most crowded banking markets without a dominant local player. But a handful of hometown banks, including Ed Wehmer's Wintrust Financial along with PrivateBancorp, MB Financial and First Midwest Bancorp, look to be in a good poisiton to pursue the mantle.

The drain from construction loan portfolios has slowed, and other categories of commercial property loans have notched gains in recent periods.