First Community Bancshares Inc. in Bluefield, Va., is bulking up in the Richmond market with a deal to acquire the $286 million-asset Peoples Bank in Virginia for about $40.6 million in cash and stock.

GFA Federal Credit Union of Gardener, Mass., has agreed to acquire Monadnock Community Bank, a troubled former credit union located in nearby Peterborough, N.H., in the second credit union deal for a bank over the past few months.

One has to admire the tenacity of the credit union lobby. Once again, a handful of very large credit unions are putting pressure on Congressional officials to pass legislation that will increase credit unions' business lending authority from 12.5 percent of their total assets to 27.5 percent. The commercial banking industry has fought off similar attempts for such expansion in previous Congressional sessions and we are working hard to do so once again.

A decision by a Georgia judge this week raised new obstacles in the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s claims against former managers of the failed Integrity Bank.

Rich trading multiples for banking companies like Prosperity in Houston make accretive acquisitions relatively simple. Institutions with such powerful stock currencies are few, however.

The slow M&A market gives the Pennsylvania bank little choice but to digest its two acquisitions and wait for conditions to improve, CEO Reuter says.

Community banks are warning Congress that allowing interest to be paid on such accounts will help large banks and hurt local communities, but they appear to be gaining little traction.

The Blackstone Group has converted some of its shares in BankUnited Inc. into non-voting stock in a move that should allow its own chief executive' to keep his personal financials private.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. is embarking on an ambitious study to better understand community banks. It doing so, it's looking beyond the traditional measure — size.

Beach Business Bank recently agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against it by shareholders corralled by a law firm specializing in litigation tied to acquisitions. Those types of investigations used to be reserved for larger deals but are quickly becoming a mainstay as consolidation picks up.

Bank of the Carolinas Corp. in Mocksville, N.C., will be delisted from the Nasdaq after failing to maintain a market value of publicly traded shares of at least $5 million.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Fueled by higher bank fees and the Bank Transfer Day movement, credit unions scored some of their biggest membership gains ever in the second half of 2011, NCUA reported this morning.

BOK Financial Corp. in Tulsa is eyeing acquisitions of banks and nonbanks as it looks to both increase market share in areas where it operates and generate more revenues from fees.

Fiserv is merging its two person-to-person payment offerings, Popmoney and ZashPay, and will market the combined offering as Popmoney.

Heritage Commerce Bancorp Inc. in San Jose has received approval from its regulators and the Treasury Department to repay the $40 million it received from the Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Georgia Bank & Trust has found that an automated approach to software patches brings compliance benefits.

Mobile banking, virtualization and imaging technology dominated this year's Top 10 Community Bank IT Initiatives. Thad Hutcheson at T Bank stood out from the pack for smart in-house/outsource decisions.

Florida Capital Bank in Jacksonville has raised $25 million in the last 15 months as it works to meet regulatory capital ratios and overcome a slew of problem loans.

To the surprise of no one closely watching a new bill seeking to give banks some cover from examiners, federal regulators confirmed that no, they would not be OK with Congress creating an alternative appeals route for banks that want to dispute their exam ratings.

The current regulatory approach to compliance has led bankers to stop offering certain consumer loan products or to increase what they charge. We all lose if the cost of compliance forces regulated lenders to send customers to the back-alley loan shark.