Financial institutions

The North Carolina regional will pay $30 million for the much-smaller Palmetto Heritage Bancshares.

The Ohio company said low unemployment is keeping business clients from expanding, while higher asking prices are forcing it to avoid bank acquisitions.

Prosperity Bancshares in Houston said that its earnings increased 19% from a year earlier as its efficiency ratio rose.

Vipin Gupta, who was chief information officer at Key Community Bank, will oversee strategy for information technology at Toyota Financial Services.

BankUnited in Miami Lakes, Fla., said that second-quarter earnings rose 36% as average loan and investment securities balances increased.

Elizabeth Warren, Sheila Bair and other regulatory hawks at a D.C. event hailed the reforms enacted in the wake of the 2008 crisis.

Florida created headaches for the Georgia company during the financial crisis. Increased discipline, and wholesale changes to banking, make the $3 billion purchase of FCB Financial less risky, CEO Kessel Stelling says.

In a 2015 enforcement action, the San Francisco Fed said it had identified problems with the Pasadena, Calif., bank’s BSA and anti-money-laundering compliance programs.

The $2.9 billion deal is the Georgia company's first traditional whole-bank acquisition since 2006. It is also the year's second-biggest bank acquisition.

Leroy Abrahams had previously served as president of the bank's North Central Alabama region.

Vend Lease, which is based in Baltimore, focuses on suppliers and vendors in the hospitality industry.

On Mar. 31, 2018. Dollars in thousands.

On Mar. 31, 2018. Dollars in thousands.

The bank also agreed to pay a $5 million fine to settle allegations over how it obtained consumers' consent.

Goldman’s next CEO pushes for more women in senior roles. Fifth Third’s program to retain new moms is working. And there’s good news and bad news at Bank of America, as it bulks up on female summer interns but pays out millions to an exec fired over sexual harassment claims.

The federal bank regulators are considering roughly a dozen new rulemakings in response to the bill rolling back certain sections of Dodd-Frank.

The Birmingham, Ala., bank also saw lending decline in the quarter as strategic reductions in certain business lending lines offset gains in C&I and consumer.

State Street said it would suspend a share repurchase program and issue common and preferred stock to pay for the deal.

The company has created a municipal group that will focus on nonpublic financing services at a time when loans to bond issuers are declining.

While the regulatory environment is more accommodating for big deals, many regionals still have their reasons for staying on the sidelines.