NBT Bancorp (NBTB) will acquire Alliance Financial (ALNC) in a deal valued at $233 million.

City government officials in Paterson, N.J. have hired a collection agency to help pursue more than $7 million in unpaid municipal court fines.

The embattled Lansing, Mich., company announced earlier this week that it had entered into agreements with two units of ValStone Partners, a private-equity firm in Birmingham, Mich.

Roy Dowdy Jr., the CEO of Citizens Bank in Geneva, Ala., expects more healthy small town banks to sell as margins thin and costs rise. His bank decided to sell to Bank of the Ozarks earlier this week.

Economic pressures will force more small banks to sell, and midsize banks will feast on them while regulatory limits trap big banks on the sidelines of M&A, says John Roddy, a Macquarie Group investment banker.

Michael Tierney will continue to tackle lingering mortgage problems at the Michigan company, which is also trying to expand more into commercial lending. Meanwhile, a key private-equity backer says is has no immediate interest to cash out of the company.

Bank of Henderson has agreed to buy Harrison Bancorp. The Kentucky bank did not disclose the price, though Dale Sights, its president and CEO, said that he expects to complete the acquisition next month.

First Marblehead in Boston has agreed to acquire certain assets and liabilities of Cology, a provider of student loan processing and servicing for more than 250 lenders, most of them credit unions.

Bank of the Ozarks of Little Rock, Ark., is buying Genala Banc, the holding company of The Citizens Bank of Geneva, Ala., for $27.3 million.

Polonia Bancorp (PBCP) in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., has postponed its stock sale and conversion to a stock company after a regulatory exam revealed compliance problems.

State Bank Financial in Atlanta has added retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Robert McMahon to its board of directors, and CEO Joe Evans explains why.

Some private-equity investors are rushed to exit their banking investments, but the growth prospects of EverBank Financial in Jacksonville, Fla., should keep its moneymen patient, CEO Robert Clements says.

C1 Bank of Lakewood Ranch, Fla., may be requiring U.S. Century Bank in Doral, Fla., to unload some troubled loans prior to C1's pending purchase of the struggling lender.

Seth Waller, most recently a consumer credit officer at U.S. Bancorp, has joined EverBank in Jacksonville, Fla., as its first chief credit officer.

The future is bright for mortgage servicers, but his PE firm agreed to sell Homeward Residential to Ocwen because it had held the investment long enough — and owning stock in a bigger servicer will pay off, billionaire Wilbur Ross said.

Residents of Aurora, Ill. who allow parking fines or unpaid water bills to go to collections soon could be told to pay the city's collection costs on top of the debt.

Frost Bank in San Antonio and the Baker Group, a securities firm in Oklahoma City, have agreed to share their bank clients with each other.

Ocwen Financial in Atlanta has agreed to buy Homeward Residential Holdings from WL Ross & Co. for $750 million in cash and stock.

The $15 billion-asset company said Monday it has completed its purchase of the business property lending unit of General Electric's (GE) GE Capital for $2.4 billion in cash.

Bank deals priced at or below tangible book value grew steadily in the first three quarters of 2012, and more are said to be coming as struggling banks start to turn the corner and attract buyers.