The Basel III capital proposals would severely restrict already weak lending at community banks and has to be changed, panelists said at American Banker's Regulatory Symposium. But international politics and legal requirements will make them hard to change, they acknowledged.

Mary Miller, the U.S. Treasury under secretary for domestic finance, praised the Dodd-Frank Act in a speech at American Banker's Regulatory Symposium Friday.

Oriental Financial Group in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is looking to raise $36 million of common equity.

Heritage Financial (HFWA) is buying Northwest Commercial Bank of Lakewood, Wash.

Bank of America (BAC) has agreed to compensate mortgage loan applicants who alleged the bank discriminated against some borrowers who received disability income.

The U.S. banking arm of Bank of Montreal said the cuts will take place at a data center in Sun Prairie and a mortgage underwriting office in Cedarburg.

FirstMerit will have to spend major investor equity to buy struggling Citizens Republic, but its shares are strong enough to afford the deal and the fit would be that good, FirstMerit CEO Paul Greig says.

Level One Bancorp in Farmington Hills, Mich., has found its next growth opportunity with a deal to buy a struggling 128-year-old bank.

Banks will not regain the public's trust with good marketing, PNC chief executive officer James Rohr tells American Banker's Regulatory Symposium.

Cadence Bancorp has entered San Antonio after hiring a group of lenders from International Bancshares.

Plans by National Bank Holdings and Capital Bank Financial to go public will create common stock that can supplement cash for open-bank acquisitions.

The payment software company plans to add Distra's services-oriented solution to its portfolio.

First Commercial Bancshares will to sell a branch in Norman, Oklahoma. The Edmond, Okla., company has been focusing more on Colorado, where it has four branches.

MetLife is still waiting to free itself from oversight by banking regulators.

Citizens Republic had been rumored to be on the block for several weeks. Analysts are also calling the deal significant, but pricey, for FirstMerit.

The Federal Reserve is taking steps to boost the economic recovery by buying an additional $40 billion of mortgage debt each month.

Fair Isaac Corp. has completed its $115 million acquisition of Adeptra, a privately held company that provides technology for reducing fraud and credit risk.

Capital One's CEO expresses concern that innovations from the likes of Google and PayPal could put banks in a "back seat." He also says the bank is done with acquisitions for the time being.

Executives clashed over whether to add or kill branches, parried M&A rumors, defended big banks and braced for economic slowdown at the Barclays financial services conference in New York.

BNP Paribas SA, France's biggest bank, embarked on a five-year plan to expand services to affluent U.S. clients as the company looks to businesses beyond its core European market for growth.