The changing of the guard at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and hope among bankers for mergers and acquisitions activity are popular items this month.

The Illinois company plans to acquire neighboring Bancorp Financial in a cash-and-stock transaction that would form the second largest community bank in the Chicago area.

The Champaign, Illinois-based bank said Jeffrey Jones stepped down from his post days before it could close its acquisition of CrossFirst Bankshares. Jones' exit was not deal related, Busey said.

Community Bankshares has launched a unit that is originating Small Business Administration 7(a) loans for itself and aims to service them for other small lenders around the country.

Deal advisors said the Trump administration's tariff threats and the specter of inflation have given some bankers reason to pause on acquisition plans. Momentum could still mount, but uncertainty in Washington is a detriment early in the new year.

The $35 billion transaction has faced pushback from critics on antitrust grounds since it was announced a year ago. The vote today puts the deal one step closer to closing.

Acting Comptroller of the Currency Rodney Hood suggested Tuesday that regulators should consider raising the dollar amount for mandatory suspicious activity reporting and revising the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index to advance bank mergers.

The three-year-old Newport Beach-based institution, which secured $500 million in investor pledges to acquire peers, says more dealmaking may be in the works.

At a trial that starts this week in Manhattan, federal prosecutors will seek to prove that Charlie Javice, the founder of college financial-planning startup Frank, and chief growth officer Olivier Amar committed fraud to get JPMorgan Chase & Co. to go through with the 2021 transaction.

Provident Bank announces its new chief lending officer; the SEC's acting chairman asks a federal court to delay scheduling cases involving a rule on climate-related disclosure; the merger deadline for Capital One Financial's proposed acquisition of Discover Financial Services is extended; and more in this week's banking news roundup.