BancorpSouth (BXS) in Tupelo, Miss., will take a $10.9 million charge for an early-retirement program meant to cut costs in the long term — and an additional charge is possible.

The $76 million-asset lender raised the sum from local investors. It began the effort in October and finished at the end of May, its financial advisor, Community Capital Advisors, announced on Monday.

It's been a buoyant year for stocks but not for bank deals. Regulatory uncertainty and a failure of buyers and sellers to come to terms on price continue to stymie activity. American Banker staffers discuss whether the market is getting closer to taking off and why some big investors have been selling.

Overdraft revenue at banks, thrifts and credit unions has stagnated over the last year, according to new research, as the industry absorbs the impact of past regulations and braces for potential future ones.

Regulation should be strong enough to protect investors yet business-minded enough to promote active derivatives, mortgage and other markets, says Judd Gregg, a former New Hampshire lawmaker and new chief executive of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.

A proposal that banks break down their deposit fee income by overdraft charges and other revenue sources in quarterly call reports has sparked a debate over whether the reporting process should aid the development of consumer policy.

First National Bank of Talladega has coaxed a banking veteran out of retirement to serve as the Alabama company's president and chief executive.

Reforming the housing finance system cannot and should not be rushed, especially since we lack basic information on the likely impact of the various proposed alternatives.

The nation's largest mutual has been an early adopter, using the Internet to market and originate small-business loans.

Citigroup has settled a lawsuit that charged the company with deceiving institutional investors about its exposure to subprime loans in the lead-up to the mortgage meltdown.

Delinquencies on commercial mortgages that back securities inched up in May as resolutions fell.

American Banker Magazine's recent article on the Small Business Administration's Karen Mills was quite a love-fest. Here's the other side of the story that would be good for the public to hear.

The United States needs a new, 21st-century model for identifying, monitoring and reporting risk at banks. The model must be forward-looking, not backward-looking as the Camels ratings are.

Tech startups are gunning to compete with banks by providing financial services to low-income and other underserved customers. Many of the offerings provide me-too services with limited appeal, however, rather than attractive innovations.

General Electric reached a settlement with the New York Attorney General's office resolving an investigation into a GE health-care credit card that charged interest rates as high as 27%.

Suffolk Bancorp in Riverhead, N.Y., has been released from a written agreement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Farmers National Banc in Canfield, Ohio is buying an employee-benefits consultant.

AmericanWest Bank in Spokane, Wash., has agreed to buy eight southern California branches from First PacTrust Bancorp in Irvine, Calif.

Meritrust CU plans to build a vault-style safe room in its newest branch in Manhattan, Kan,. to protect against tornadoes like the one that struck Moore, Okla.

Enrollment is up at the ABA Stonier Graduate School of Banking as banks return to financial health and executives once again invest in their employees' development.