PSB Bancorp in Wisconsin is requiring Marathon State Bank to pay out a special dividend before the deal closes. While unusual now, the move harkens back to a pre-crisis tactic that existed when capital wasn't a concern.

The state of Hawaii is considering using federal stimulus money to create a "clean economy bank" that would make low-interest rate loans to clean energy companies.

Sales officers and pricing desks frequently misjudge customers' sensitivity to rates and overpay for deposits. Similarly, banks that underestimate duration leave money on the table.

The impact of the so-called Durbin Amendment on small financial institutions was a hot topic Wednesday at a credit-union conference in Washington.

John Walsh, the acting Comptroller of the Currency, used an appearance at the American Bankers Association's governmental summit to state the case against creating an alternative appeals process.

A Michigan bank that recently endured three straight years of losing money and a Seattle thrift that was once on the verge of failure are among 22 banks and thrifts that the investment bank Sandler O'Neill & Partners LP predicts will be added to the Russell 3000 stock index this year.

Activist investor Joseph Stilwell wants the company to find a seller a month after one of his representatives quit the board.

Rurban Financial Corp. in Defiance, Ohio, has revised its 2011 earnings after the abrupt bankruptcy of a key client wound up wiping out much of the company's fourth-quarter profits.

The American Bankers Association told attendees at its Government Relations Summit that now is not the time to “play footsie” with lawmakers and regulators.

Is it inevitable? Will community banks as we know them cease to exist over the next 10 years, with large, regional and multi-state banks along with credit unions left to fill the gap?

Senate Democrats Tuesday failed in an attempt to scale back a bill meant to ease the path for small banks to raise new capital.

Daryl Byrd is reluctant to discuss specific markets, though he says in an interview Tuesday that his company is open to deals in several states as it looks to grow more outside its home turf in Louisiana.

Fulton Financial Corp. has promoted an insider to replace R. Scott Smith Jr., who announced plans to retire from the Lancaster, Pa., company at the end of this year.

The Federal Reserve Board has terminated a written agreement with Mid America Bank and Trust Co. in Dixon, Mo.

A group including $78 billion-asset M&T and $9 billion-asset Sterling Financial ratcheted up their servicing portfolios by a fifth or more in 2011. Nonbanks are scooping up problem loan servicing, but banks still have a distinct funding advantage.

Bank of Montreal expects to save $300 million a year from the acquisition of Marshall & Ilsley, $50 million more than initially forecast, CEO William Downe says.

A Virginia investor who has co-founded and sold three community banks in the past decade may buy up to a 45% share in First Capital Bancorp Inc. in Glen Allen, Va.

Bridge Capital Holdings Inc. in San Jose is opening a third loan office on the East Coast to lend to emerging technology companies.

Continuing in its quest to reinvent itself as a specialty-finance lender, TCF Financial Corp. of Wayzata, Minn., has launched a new division that will specialize in asset-based and cash-flow lending to smaller middle-market companies across the U.S.

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