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Deutsche Bank has hired the former president of the Clearing House Association to take charge of its stress testing process.

The chief executive of CertusBank in Greenville, S.C., has officially stepped down after undergoing heart surgery.

Presidio Bank in San Francisco has added longtime California banking executive James Westfall to its board of directors. He will serve on the bank's audit and asset liability committees.

A new study by a consumer group found that checking account disclosures at the nation's largest banks have improved, but overdraft fee practices are largely unchanged from previous years.

First Farmers and Merchants Bank in Columbia, Tenn., has hired a former Regions Financial banker to run its wealth management operations.

BankUnited in Miami Lakes, Fla., has hired Hakim Kassam, a former Wells Fargo banker, to run its small business finance department.

A former chief financial officer at Bank of McKenney in McKenney, Va., has been indicted on two counts of embezzlement.

In responding to a fan Monday on Twitter, Rowling was asked the full name of the character "Moaning Myrtle," a ghost that haunts Hogwarts, where Harry Potter goes to school. Rowling's reply raised a few eyebrows.

Top-performing community banks have found different ways to provide double-digit returns, despite numerous challenges facing the banking industry.

Looking past standard gauges of return on equity and return on assets, bank investors have wide opinions on what makes a bank a high-performing institution relative to peers.

A number of this year's top-performing banks have been able to ride the highs and lows of the economic cycle to still produce long-term returns to investors.

What makes for a high-performing bank? We take an in-depth look at what drove profitability for the institutions at the top of our annual rankings, all of which are based on three-year average returns on equity. See the list of banks and thrifts with under $2 billion in assets or the mid-tiers with $2 billion to $10 billion of assets. Stay tuned as those with $10 billion to $50 billion of assets are still to come.

Rates are low and compliance costs are rising. But banks with $2 billion or less in assets still have momentum in several key areas, based on data compiled by Capital Performance Group.

CertusBank's chief executive, who joined the Greenville, S.C., company after its founders were fired last year, has left his post due to a medical issue.

Bank of America's shareholders cast far fewer votes than a year earlier for a key director who helped combine the titles of chairman and chief executive, allowing Brian Moynihan to hold both posts while sparking anger among investors.

Investors have varied expectations of how banks should build and deploy capital. Ultimately, management teams need to stick to their growth plans rather than serve the whims of specific shareholders.

First Citizens BancShares in Raleigh, N.C., reported higher earnings on the backs of two acquisitions.

The Patriot Center at George Mason University is about to be renamed EagleBank Arena.

Trans Pacific National Bank in San Francisco has named ex-Chicago banker Bob Lussier its president and chief executive.

Bank of America, led by Brian Moynihan, at its annual meeting tried to look responsive to criticisms of its corporate governance, slow turnaround and other matters while announcing it would phase out lending to coal companies.