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Fulton Financial (FULT) in Lancaster, Pa., said Tuesday that its first-quarter earnings climbed nearly 13% from the same period last year, to $38.1 million, as strong refinancing activity, improved asset quality and sharply lower funding costs more than offset sluggish commercial loan growth.

In a complex move, BNC Bancorp (BNCN) in High Point, N.C., is seeking to change its private equity partner's ownership position in order to boost its capital levels.

BNC Financial Group of New Canaan, Conn., has hired former NewAlliance Bancshares Chief Executive Peyton R. Patterson as its new CEO.

Pioneer Bank in Dripping Springs, Texas, has struck its first-ever acquisition, announcing Tuesday that it is buying the $28 million-asset Colorado Valley Bank in LaGrange.

Some analysts believe the time is ripe for second-step conversions by mutual holding companies. Still, some bankers believe the floodgates will remain closed until regulators decide to let MHCs pay a special dividend before converting.

In first speech as comptroller, Curry touts the benefits of the national charter for community banks and thrifts as more consider flipping to state charters.

Westamerica Bancorporation (WABC) in San Rafael, Calif., said Tuesday that its first-quarter earnings fell 6.2%, to $21.8 million, from the same period in 2011 as the company intentionally curtailed its lending in response to persistently low interest rates and fierce competition for quality loans.

United Community Banks (UCBI) in Blairsville, Ga., has registered the preferred shares it issued to the Treasury Department as part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program for potential resale, a key step for banks that want to be included in any upcoming auctions of Tarp shares.

DENVER – State regulators on Friday approved applications from $2 billion Bellco CU and $225 million Denver Community CU to serve almost 450,000 residents in Adams County, making at least five of the state's biggest credit unions authorized to serve the fast-growing county, which includes the Denver bedroom communities of Arvada and Aurora and part of the city of Denver.

According to American folklore, the famously long-legged Abraham Lincoln was once asked: "Abe, how long should a man's legs be?" Lincoln is reported to have answered: "Long enough to reach the ground."

Grant Thornton has hired a former Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. employee as a managing director in its national bank regulatory practice.

Too-big-to-fail stifles economic growth. Oligopolies and asset concentration strangle competition and suppress innovation, job creation and free markets in financial services, as they once did in oil, steel and telecommunications.

CNB Financial (CCNE) of Clearfield, Pa., reported first-quarter income of $4.3 million, up almost 33% from a year earlier, as net interest income and total loans rose.

WSFS Financial (WSFS) in Wilmington, Del., says that a discounted loan program it established late last year to help spur small-business expansion has been so well-received that the company is extending it through the end of June.

Industry observers are concerned that banks could get caught flat-footed as regulators ramp up oversight of Bank Secrecy Act and Anti Money Laundering policies.

Second-step conversions by mutual holding companies have been in a freeze since last summer, but at least one analyst believes that the market is set to thaw.

Pacific Valley Bank in Salinas, Calif., announced it intends to de-register its thinly traded shares and suspend filing periodic financial reports with the FDIC as a result of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act signed into law this month.

FVNB Corporation in Victoria, Texas, is expanding into the Austin and San Antonio markets with a deal to acquire the $270 million-asset First State Bank in New Braunfels.

Banks and credit unions are lobbying fiercely over legislation that would allow the latter to expand further into commercial lending.