State and federal banking regulators encouraged the merger deal between Crescent State Bank and VantageSouth for safety and soundness and other reasons, a proxy filing says.

Great Southern Bancorp in Springfield, Mo., is bucking an industry trend toward fee-based lines of business in agreeing to sell its insurance and travel units.

First York Ban Corp in York, Neb., has agreed to acquire Glenvil Cooperative Credit Union, in a rare acquisition of a credit union by a bank.

CIT Group (CIT) in Livingston, N.J., has launched a unit that will originate and underwrite financing for seafaring vessels.

Lawsuits that charge Goldman Sachs (GD) and Deutsche Bank (DB) with misleading mortgage investors may proceed, a federal judge in Manhattan has ruled.

Collection agency iQor Inc. plans to move 500 jobs from a site near Columbus, Ohio to New Albany, Ohio, then add another 300 full-time jobs at the location through 2017.

Polonia Bancorp in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., has finished its stock offering and second-step conversion to a stock-owned company.

American International Group (AIG), which stands to join a list of financial institutions deemed too big to fail, may be looking to unload its thrift unit.

Investors Bancorp (ISBC) will cut 31 jobs at Marathon National Bank of New York, about a month after it completed its acquisition of the formerly Greek-owned bank.

Leucadia National Corp. agreed to buy the portion of Jefferies Group Inc. it doesn't already own for about $2.76 billion.

The board of 1st Mariner Bancorp has withdrawn from a long delayed securities purchase agreement with a New York investment firm that would have injected badly needed capital into the Baltimore company.

Stifel CEO Ronald Kruszewski and KBW CEO Thomas Michaud discuss how the two investment banks complement each other and give their outlook on bank M&A.

President Obama's re-election will speed up implementation of Dodd-Frank, increasing regulatory burden and potentially spurring some bankers to finally sell.

Community & Southern Holdings has agreed to acquire a branch in metro Atlanta from Ameris Bancorp.

The bank for Great Southern Bancorp (GSBC) in Springfield, Mo., has agreed to sell its travel agency and insurance units so it can focus on its core business.

California Republic Bancorp (CRPB) in Newport Beach, Calif., has completed a securitization of nearly $183 million of prime indirect automobile loans.

BankFinancial (BFIN) in Burr Ridge, Ill., is considering an aggressive plan to scrub its balance sheet of troubled assets by the end of the year.

Some of the China's largest banks are eyeing potential acquisitions in the United States, but they are proceeding cautiously in hopes of avoiding the mistakes made by foreign banks that preceded them.

Chinese banks have clearance to invest in U.S. banks but are proceeding cautiously to avoid any missteps, industry observers say. Click through to view foreign banks that fled the U.S. because of major stumbles here or problems back home.

Yorktown Financial Holdings in Tulsa, Okla., has agreed to buy CNBO Bancorp in Pryor, Okla.