West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw's office sued two divisions of Encore Capital Group, claiming the firms participated in fraudulent collections and used false affidavits in lawsuits.

First Citizens BancShares Inc. in Raleigh, N.C., reported only modest earnings growth in 2011 as income gains from failed-bank acquisitions were largely offset by higher loss provisions related to loans it inherited in those deals.

Cloud-based compliance and data-security provider Trustwave soon will add Web security to its portfolio through the acquisition of M86 Security, an Irvine, Calif.-based provider of advanced antimalware technology.

Cadence Bancorp's offer of 2.4 times tangible book value for Houston's Encore Bancshares has revived hopes that the M&A is coming back.

There are several factors that Bank of America's managers must have known when they recently started testing a new fee schedule for consumers.

WASHINGTON — The Treasury Department said Wednesday it is selling $6 billion of its common stock in American International Group, half of which AIG intends to buy itself at the initial public offering price.

First California Financial Group Inc. in Westlake Village, Calif., has partnered with another company to provide tax refunds on prepaid cards.

Tom Brouster, hired last week as a consultant to Reliance Bancshares, has a track record of turning around struggling banks. Brouster, who declined to outline a specific strategy for the St. Louis-area company, said in an interview Tuesday that selling is always an option in banking.

Visa Europe plans to acquire a 15% minority stake in mobile retail payments provider Mobile Money Network Ltd., the European payment system provider announced March 7.

Shareholders of Mainline Bancorp Inc. in Ebensbug, Pa., have approved the company's sale to S&T Bancorp Inc.

Encore Bancshares in Houston had a three-year plan for independence before an offer from Cadence Bancorp provided shareholders with the same value … immediately.

NCO Group, an accounts receivable management giant based in Horsham, Pa., has notified North Carolina government officials that it plans to close a call center in Guilford County, N.C. and lay off 685 workers in the coming months. The Guilford call center is part of NCO's customer marketing and sales division.

Global banking giant HSBC Holdings PLC said Wednesday that it has agreed to sell its general insurance businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore, Argentina and Mexico to AXA Group and Australia's QBE Insurance Group Ltd. in separate deals valued at around US$914 million in cash.

The $114 million-asset Clarkston State Bank in Michigan survived the economic downturn by significantly shrinking its assets, selling a stake in another bank and raising $8.5 million of capital. Clarkston's slow recovery could give hope to other struggling banks.

Big banks need passing grades on stress tests and healthy stocks before they start buying, Frank Cicero says.

First Republic Bank in San Francisco is planning to open as many as seven new offices on the East Coast this year and another three on West Coast as it looks to boost its market share among affluent households in the California, New York and Boston markets.

Nationstar Mortgage and an affiliate company, Newcastle Investment Corp., have agreed to acquire roughly $63 billion in mortgage servicing rights from Aurora Bank FSB, a subsidiary of the bankrupt Lehman Bros.

A New York investment group that is planning to buy a Long Island community banking company has agreed to pay the seller a $500,000 break-up fee if the oft-delayed deal is not completed by the end of this month.

Encore Bancshares is the latest Texas bank to sell itself for a nice price, even as bank M&A stutters outside the state.

Citing the completion of its acquisition of Swedish payments provider Point, VeriFone posted a 40.4% increase in fiscal first quarter year-over-year earnings.