The new employment agreement with veteran banker John Kanas comes just weeks after reports surfaced that the Florida company was again weighing offers to sell.

Cordia Bancorp will invest $3 million to consolidate control of Bank of Virginia in a move Jack Zoeller, Cordia's CEO, says will position the company to make acquisitions and raise capital.

First Community Financial Partners in Joliet, Ill., will combine its four banks under a single charter to increase the availability of products at each one.

Morgan Stanley and Citigroup agreed to delay setting a valuation for their brokerage joint-venture as they wrangle over the sale of a 14% stake.

Bank of Montreal, Canada's fourth-biggest lender by assets, raised its dividend for the first time in five years after posting third-quarter profit that climbed on added earnings from U.S. consumer banking.

A breakdown of M&A announcements in the financial services industry for the week ended August 25.

Eight of KBW's top 10 banks for 2Q loan growth boosted their results with acquisitions. Learn who the leaders were, how much they expanded lending and who they bought in this American Banker slideshow.

BB&T (BBT) will close 21 branches as it works to ingrate the recently acquired BankAtlantic into its operations.

The Paramus, N.J., thrift decided to sell itself to M&T for a relatively low price rather than keep trying to overcome its reliance on low interest rates. That was bad news for the countless small banks attempting similar reboots.

Robert Wilmers, the chairman and CEO of M&T Bank who retired for a couple of years and then came back to work, has staged a second act arguably more successful than his first.

Jacksonville Bancorp (JAXB) plans to raise up to $50 million by selling securities to a group of investors led by the Florida company's biggest shareholder.

The announcement by M&T that it's buying Hudson City reflects both the acquirer's deal-making skills and the difficulty of changing strategies in today's environment—as the once high-flying seller had sought to do before deciding to sell.

Independent Bank in Rockland, Mass., has filed a shelf registration to raise up to $125 million.

Continuing its rapid growth in the Northeast, M&T Bank in Buffalo, N.Y., announced early Monday that it is buying Hudson City Bancorp in Paramus, N.J., for $3.7 billion in cash and stock.

The hotel industry expects to collect $1.95 billion this year on charges for extras such as Internet fees, telephone surcharges and business center and resort fees, according to a study.

M&T Bank agreed to buy Hudson City Bancorp to expand in New Jersey in a deal valued at about $3.7 billion.

The Jersey City, N.J. government has approved a contract with a collection agency to track down millions of dollars in delinquent municipal court fines.

Hamilton Bank in Baltimore has received regulatory approval to take the second step to a stock-owned company from a mutual holding company.

First California Financial Group faces investor pressure to sell and an unsolicited bid from PacWest Bancorp. Yet it danced around its vulnerable M&A status in a proxy filing on its deal to buy Premier Service Bank.

Mutual holding companies appear to be fleeing the format and converting to stock companies, but Northeast Community CEO Kenneth Martinek remains a staunch supporter of the model. That may be partly because he's being sued by an activist investor who is pushing him to convert Northeast to a stock company from an MHC.