Bank shares tend to rally in election years but often fall after all the ballots are cast, a KBW study going back to 1984 says.

Aspiring consolidators are weighing the benefits of hiring lending teams as opposed to making acquisitions.

Banks have been increasing their municipal bond holdings so much that they're now on pace to surpass both money market funds and insurers to become the third-largest holders of municipal securities.

A breakdown of bank M&A announcements for the week ended Sept. 22.

Scotiabank in Canada has started issuing cards on the American Express (AXP) network, the companies said on Monday.

Opus Bank in Irvine, Calif., has completed its acquisition of ten branches from PacWest Bancorp. The companies said in separate press releases that the transaction closed on Friday. Opus rebranded the branches over the weekend.

Joseph Stilwell said in a regulatory filing that he could start pushing the thrift's management to put stashed away capital to work.

MetLife (MET) has found a new forum for a deal the company hopes will free it from banking regulators.

First PacTrust said Gregory Mitchell , who had been its CEO since November 2010, had resigned. The resignation comes roughly a month after the company said Mitchell would share the CEO title with Steven A. Sugarman.

PL Capital said in a regulatory filing Thursday that it has raised its stake in Magyar to 9.99% on Aug. 1, compared to a prior stake of 8.6%.

Jay Sidhu, the head of Customers Bancorp in Pennsylvania, has received about as much money from private investors in recent months as it sought to raise in its canceled IPO.

When FirstMerit agreed to buy Citizens Republic this month, it capped Cathleen Nash's efforts to rebound from recession in hard-hit Michigan.

CapStone Bank in Raleigh, N.C., has agreed to buy Patriot State Bank in Fuquay-Varina, N.C., for roughly $10.6 million.

The company paid roughly $939,000 to repurchase a warrant that would have allowed the Treasury Department to buy about 543,300 shares of BNC's common stock at $8.63 per share, BNC said in a regulatory filing Thursday.

First California Financial Group is on the verge of announcing an agreement to sell itself, possibly to UnionBanCal or CVB Financial — and not hostile bidder PacWest, sources familiar with the matter say.

The advantages a public company has in buying open banks outweighed the relatively low pricing of its initial public offering, National Bank Holdings CEO Timothy Laney said on its first day of trading.

Heidi Miller, the former president of JPMorgan Chase's international businesses, says that megabanks have to do a better job of defending themselves — and acknowledges that some banks run the risk of becoming too big.

FirstBank Holding in Lakewood, Colo., will close 15 branches in its home state, reflecting an increase in its customers' reliance on electronic banking.

Ambassador, a broker-dealer and deal advisor, announced Thursday that it would acquire the operations of Capital Insight Partners. Jacob Eisen and Tad Gage, the co-founders of Capital Insight, are set to become managing directors of Ambassador.

Capital Bank Financial and National Bank Holdings priced their initial public offerings below the ranges they gave last week. Other banking companies have struggled in the IPO market this year.