The Justice Department on Thursday ordered First Niagara Financial Group to sell 26 of the branches it has agreed to buy from HSBC Holdings. The branches are in the Buffalo area and have $1.6 billion of deposits.

Consumer groups that have already raised questions about Capital One Financial Corp.'s purchase of Internet bank ING Direct USA have now turned their attention to the bank's purchase of the credit card portfolio of HSBC Holdings PLC.

Families that own capital-starved banks are facing the decision whether to raise capital from outside investors — saving the banks but diluting their own stakes — or to keep pumping money into them to keep them alive.

National Asset Recovery Services (NARS) Inc., H.I.G. Capital's portfolio firm, announced Wednesday that it has acquired Integrity Financial Partners, a third-party collection company.

Vantiv Inc., parent of Cincinnati-based payment processor Vantiv LLC, filed an initial public offering of $100 million of Class A common shares, saying it will use the proceeds to repay loans and redeem Class B units.

The nation's 10 largest retail banks are at risk of losing $185 billion of deposits over the next year as customers will look to move primary accounts to community and regional banks that they perceive as being more consumer friendly.

Delinquencies in the $30 billion portfolio rose in the third quarter, but its sale to Capital One is still on, HSBC executive says.

CertusBank in Greenville, S.C. said Wednesday that it agreed to buy $96 million of performing loans and $211 million of deposits from First Guaranty Bank Corp.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says the Internal Revenue Service made a mistake related to $253 million in disputed tax refunds that are at the center of a legal fight between the bank regulator and the bankruptcy estate of Colonial BancGroup Inc.

Carve-outs are giving rise a good bank/bad bank acquisition model.

Western Liberty Bancorp Inc. in Las Vegas reported a third-quarter loss of $6.9 million, u 50% from the second quarter, due largely to a noncash goodwill impairment charge.

The U.S. unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers late Tuesday said it has hired Lisa Pavelka McAlister to manage the firm's services to private equity and alternative investment companies.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp., accused by state and federal officials of defrauding public pension funds on foreign-exchange trades, is offering some of those customers a new pricing model.

Backed by private equity money, ex-execs of megabanks are taking over banks like FNB United in North Carolina. Their plans are ambitious, but skeptics question whether they know how to run community institutions.

Led by Citigroup Inc., insurance units of bank holding companies generated a record $7.9 billion in fees during the first half of this year, up 14% from the same period in 2010.

Virgin Group founder Richard Branson says Square "is an incredible technology that inspires and empowers everyone to be an entrepreneur."

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The deal between Sterling Financial and First Independent, both of Washington state, relies on a complex carve-out from a bank holding company. Creative maneuvers are needed these days, but this model isn't for everyone.

Southern Missouri charges ahead with a stock offering, while South Valley of Oregon pulls back an IPO. The divergent decisions say everything about the tough calls that small banks face in dealing with volatile stock markets.

Nara Bancorp Inc. and Center Financial Corp. said on Monday that they had cleared their last regulatory hurdle for their planned merger after they received approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.