John Walsh, the acting Comptroller of the Currency, told attendees they shouldn't expect surprises from the OCC's exam process. Martin Gruenberg, acting chairman of the FDIC, added that big banks should face the same market forces as smaller institutions, including the threat of failure.

Great Western Bancorp. Inc. of Watertown, S.D., has agreed to buy North Central Bancshares Inc. in Fort Dodge, Iowa, for $41.5 million.

TCF Financial Corp. will take a $293 million hit in the first quarter after it decided to restructure its balance sheet while it looks to expand its specialty finance operations.

BB&T said Tuesday that it would pay off holders of BankAtlantic's trust-preferred securities and take an interest in additional assets to rescue the stalled deal.

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The list of potential bank buyers is growing at a faster rate than the ranks of sellers, according to a new research note by KBW Inc.'s Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc.

Private equity fixed Pacific Capital and has agreed to sell it to UnionBanCal for a healthy price in a slow M&A market. There could have been more deals like this had regulators embraced PE.

William S. Haraf, the commissioner of California's Department of Financial Institutions, has resigned from the post, effective Friday.

Two small Kansas banks that have been discussing a merger for much of the past year have finally pulled the trigger on a deal.

Bank customers are making fewer regular visits to their local branches, which aren't getting cheaper for banks to maintain — but bankers are sharply divided on how to fix their branch problems.

Fox Chase Bancorp Inc. in Hatboro, Pa., said the planned sale of a pool of problem consumer loans has fallen through and that, as a result, its total nonperforming assets were higher in the fourth quarter than it initially reported.

The Credit Union National Association launched a radio campaign to help save House Financial Services Chairman Spencer Bachus, who is being challenged by a Tea Party-backed candidate in Tuesday's Republican primary.

First South Bancorp Inc. in Washington, N.C., has tapped the chief financial officer at another North Carolina bank to be its next president and chief executive.

UnionBanCal is taking the unusual step of marking up the value of Pacific Capital's loan portfolio as part of its $1.5 billion deal for the Santa Barbara, Calif., lender.

Madison National Bancorp Inc. said on Monday that Daniel L. Murphy, the co-chairman and chief executive of the Melville, N.Y., company, has died.

Union Bank of California is buying bank holding company Pacific Capital, in one of the largest bank deals in years.

Large financial institutions dominate most of the nation's biggest cities. There are still some metropolitan areas where a community bank has the most deposits, often by wide margins. Here are some notable examples, based on June 30 data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

In what would be its largest acquisition in more 15 years, UnionBanCal Corp. in San Francisco is buying Pacific Capital Corp. in Santa Barbara, Calif., for about $1.5 billion in cash.

Longtime community bank investor Eric Hovde has traded Washington D.C. for Wisconsin in the hopes of taking up residence in the nation's capitol.

For a second time in three weeks, regulators have shuttered a bank that others were unwilling to acquire.