Capital One negotiated a crucial concession in its agreement to buy HSBC's cards business, while First Niagara did not in a big branch deal with the same seller. Investors, skittish about the markets, have punished First Niagara.

Community groups in California are protesting Capital One Financial Corp.'s planned acquisition of ING Direct, saying the banks have done little to help low-income communities in a state that has accounted for a large chunk of their profits.

Accenture said Monday it will buy Dallas-based mortgage outsourcing provider Zenta, in a move that puts the global consulting and outsourcing firm in the thick of the mortgage origination business and the massive loss-mitigation efforts of the mortgage servicing industry.

A small mutual thrift in Maryland has won approval from state and federal regulators to convert to a publicly traded company.

S1's board urged shareholders Monday to vote in favor of the company's pending merger with Fundtech because it says the deal will propel the technology vendors ahead of their competitors. The board also urged shareholders once again to vote against an unsolicited acquisition bid from ACI Worldwide.

Regulators closed banks in Florida, Georgia and Illinois Friday, all in places were many banks have already met their demise. On Thursday, a bank failed in Pennsylvania, one of just a handful to fail in that state in the last few years.

With wild swings in the stock market, negotiations over protections form big changes in the stock values of buyers and sellers are bogging down an already slow deals market.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed Lydian Private Bank in Palm Beach, Fla., on Friday. The $1.7 billion-asset bank is the 10th bank to fail in Florida this year.

To survive, capital-starved Community Banks of Colorado has struck a deal to sell 16 branches as well as its name.

Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto said Friday that it expects to take a $1.6 billion loss in the third quarter relating to the pending sale of its U.S. banking operations.

Bank of America Corp. is cutting 3,500 jobs in the current quarter and is working on a broader restructuring that could eliminate thousands of additional positions, people familiar with the situation said.

In a rare Thursday failure, regulators shut a small Pennsylvania bank that serves the Orthodox Jewish community.

Traditionally, objections to a merger deal are primarily fought over Community Reinvestment Act and consumer protection concerns. But the Massachusetts Democrat raised a new concern by citing fears on the size of the combined bank.

Former top executives at LaSalle Bank are looking to start a bank that would acquire the assets and deposits of failed banks in and around Chicago.

U.S. Representative Barney Frank, the senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, asked the Federal Reserve to extend its examination of Capital One Financial Corp.'s acquisition of ING Direct USA.

U.K. banks are taking stock of troubled companies they took over when private-equity owners were unable to meet debt repayments on large loan packages taken out to finance leveraged buyouts during the boom.

Ladenburg Thalmann Financial Services Inc., the Miami-based investment bank and brokerage, said Wednesday that it has agreed to buy Securities America Inc. from Ameriprise Financial Inc. for at least $150 million to add 1,700 financial advisors.

MidSouth Bancorp Inc. in Lafayette, La., has agreed to buy a branch in Tyler, Texas, from Beacon Federal Bancorp Inc.

Issuers of retail credit cards sought to exit the business en masse during the downturn. Now the industry's appeal is on the rise, along with a dramatic improvement in its performance.

Target's credit card unit earned $171 million for its second quarter ended July 30, benefiting from sharply lower losses on its cards after the financial crisis.