In their public battles over the issue of credit union buyouts of banks, bankers and credit union executives are forgetting to ask some key questions.

The Sunshine State has been a hot spot for transactions involving credit unions buying community banks in recent years, and Harvesters Credit Union is furthering this trend with a deal for First National Bank Northwest Florida.

The West Virginia bank said its acquisition of Integrated Financial Holdings in North Carolina would give it SBA and USDA lending teams that have originated more than $1 billion of loans since 2018.

The rating agency has revised the long-term issuer default rating for PacWest Bancorp and its banking subsidiary, Pacific Western Bank, from "BBB" to "BBB-" and says it doesn't expect the bank's common equity Tier 1 ratio to bounce back anytime soon.

Rising interest rates, lower stock prices and other headwinds have caused many banks to pump the brakes on dealmaking. But some are betting that these trends will be too short-lived to deter them from engaging in mergers and acquisitions.

Chairman and CEO Craig Dwight is counting on the Indiana company's new president, Thomas Prame, to pursue nonbank acquisition targets after it scooped up more than a dozen banks in the past decade.

Tom Speir, a 13-year company veteran, will be in charge of merger and acquisition efforts at the Alabama bank.

The serial acquirer agreed to pay $488.6 million for Professional Bank, which operates in areas of South Florida that have seen an influx of business activity since the start of the pandemic.

Thomas Prame is leaving Old National Bancorp, which recently merged with his former employer First Midwest Bancorp, to join a smaller rival with aggressive growth plans.

A letter from Democratic senators seeking new details about unauthorized accounts is the latest political headwind for the Minneapolis bank. It comes on the heels of a $37.5 million fine by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.