First California Financial Group (FCAL) — under pressure from activist investors to find a buyer — hired Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW) to explore a sale or other strategic options.

New Hampshire Thrift Bancshares (NHTB) has made its first bank deal in nearly five years, agreeing to buy Nashua Bank for roughly $19.4 million.

BB&T CEO Kelly King took a lot of heat for letting a rival beat him out for RBC Bank, but his patient pursuit of the more affordable BankAtlantic instead looks wise in retrospect.

Alive CU, the former Blue Cross credit union known till last month as Healthcare's Cooperative CU, is expanding outside of healthcare facilities with a deal to buy two stand-alone branches from Space Coast CU.

HF Financial (HFFC) has agreed to provide its largest shareholder with confidential information after the investor threatened to run its own candidate for the Sioux Falls, S.D., company's board.

Join the editors of American Banker and the industry's most influential policymakers, lawmakers and executives to discuss the issues that remain at the forefront of the regulatory landscape: CFPB, Volcker Rule, TAG, fair lending enforcement, Basel III and the impact the elections will have on financial institutions.

PLYMOUTH, Minn. — NCUA announced this morning it has awarded the remnants of AM Community CU, a failed $135 million Kenosha, Wis., credit union, to TruStone Financial FCU under a purchase and assumption agreement.

Tools provided by Dodd-Frank to ensure stronger oversight and restrictions over the largest banks are a more effective way to end bailouts than just limiting banks' size.

Will Spain's precarious financial situation compel the country's banks to sell their U.S. holdings?

Private equity firm Thompson Street Capital Partners, based in St. Louis, announced it has acquired Receivables Management Partners (RMP), based in Greensburg, Ind.

A new study of Federal Trade Commission complaint logs based on an analysis of all collected data from 2011 shows that the credit and collection industry is performing at a "very high service level based on the percentage of complaints", according to DBA International, the association of debt buyers.

Lured by growth opportunities and low M&A prices, mid-cap banks in neighboring states are pushing deeper into the failure-ravaged Southeast and remapping the region's competitive landscape.

LAKELAND, Fla. — MidFlorida CU, which has been growing its branch network on the Gulf Coast, has agreed to acquire Indian River CU, a troubled $55 million credit union on Florida's other coast.

Stiffer oversight of banks with assets of $50 billion or more will keep New York Community Bancorp, of Westbury, N.Y., out of the M&A game until a major acquisition comes along, CEO Joseph Ficalora says.

BB&T (BBT) in Winston-Salem, N.C., said Tuesday that it has completed its acquisition of BankAtlantic in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., after it received final approvals from the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Asset Acceptance Capital Corp., a Warren, Mich.-based debt buyer, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit for the second quarter ended June 30, helped by growth in cash collections, the company announced Monday.

A breakdown of M&A announcements for the week ended July 28.

A number of banking company closed branches during the second quarter, and even more have announced plans to follow suit. Over the past 12 months, there was a net loss of about 770 branch offices nationwide as banks aim to cut costs in the face of depressed interest rates and low loan demand.

State Bank Financial's (STBZ) second-quarter earnings nearly doubled what it reported a quarter earlier as the serial acquirer's organic growth outpaced growth from acquisitions.

Apple Inc., maker of the iPad and iPhone, agreed to acquire AuthenTec Inc. for about $350 million, gaining fingerprint-authentication technology.