Greenfield Cooperative Bank in Greenfield, Mass., and Northampton Cooperative Bank in Northampton, Mass., have received regulatory approval to merge.

Bank of Edwardsville in Illinois is set to have a new leader.

Online banking, ATMs and other advances have curtailed face-to-face transactions, but new Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. research says the brick-and-mortar office isn't going anywhere just yet.

The OTC Markets Group has opened up its community bank marketplace to privately held institutions, offering a chance for investors to monetize their holdings without selling the bank.

Auto lending surged to an all-time high in the fourth quarter yet delinquencies remained low, Experian said in a report issued Thursday.

Horizon Bancorp in Michigan City, Ind., has agreed to buy Peoples Bancorp in Auburn, Ind.

Five Star Credit Union in Dothan, Ala., has agreed to buy Farmers State Bank in Lumpkin, Ga.

Orrstown Bank in Pennsylvania has introduced two-way text messaging between customers and its service agents. It's the latest effort in the banking industry to make communication easier for mobile-first customers.

Several Korean-American banks are entering markets and businesses designed to target mainstream clients and other ethnic groups. Such moves are viewed as a way to improve the bottom line as revenue growth proves daunting.

First National Bank of Santa Fe in New Mexico has a new leader.

Auction.com, an online real estate marketplace, has named Gordon Smith its general manager of commercial real estate.

Riverview Financial in Halifax, Pa., has received state regulators' approval to buy Citizens National Bank of Meyersdale in Pennsylvania for $8 million in cash and stock.

First Defiance Financial, in Ohio, has revised upward its fourth-quarter earnings after lowering its provision for fourth-quarter income taxes.

Biddeford Savings Bank and Mechanics Savings Bank will form a holding company to help each cut costs and make bigger loans. But the thrifts are hoping to keep their own charters, and independence, over the long term.

Metro Bancorp, a company under fire from activist investors, has adopted a shareholder rights agreement that will provide common stock shareholders a dividend of one right per share.

Union Bankshares in Richmond, Va., and Entegra Financial in Franklin, N.C., are rebranding their banks.

Racial disparity in small-business loans remains glaring, despite some improvement. Lenders' unfamiliarity with African-American communities is part of the problem, but so is the need for financial education among prospective borrowers.

Loan demand, which bankers say remained weak well after the recession, is picking up, and the industry is adjusting business models to meet it. But banks may want to act fast.

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Georgia state regulators on Friday closed the $272 million-asset Capitol City Bank & Trust Co., in Atlanta, the third institution to fail this year.