Some sellers are asking for a lot and buyers have to be careful in vetting targets, but deal activity should increase given the economic pressures and the number of talks going on behind the scenes, some community bank CEOs say.

Gideon King, president of Loeb Capital Management, threatened to buy more stock in First California and clean house in the boardroom and executive suite to facilitate a sale to PacWest or another buyer.

The Community Bank, a struggling mutual thrift in Massachusetts, has given up its bid to stay independent and will instead merge with Eastern Bank, the state's largest financial institution.

JPMorgan Chase (JPM) shuffled some of its high-ranking executives and streamlined its investment and retail banking operations Friday.

First Niagara Financial Group swung to a loss in the second quarter on costs tied to its acquisition of retail branches from HSBC Bank.

Legal Helpers Debt Resolution LLC, a Chicago-based law firm specializing in consumer debt settlement that was sued last year by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, will wind down its business nationally, according to the company's general counsel.

Iberiabank is among a handful of serial buyers of banks shuttering branches and taking other steps to lower expenses and raise earnings.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. urged bank CEOs to watch out for middlemen seeking upfront fees to connect them with capital because, it says, many are frauds. The alert should have come sooner, some industry officials say.

Promising acquisition prospects in the New York area prompted Investors Bancorp to tweak the New Jersey company's initial westward-focused growth plan, CEO Kevin Cummings says.

Iberiabank plans to close underperforming branches and trim elsewhere after acquisition-related costs rose in the second quarter, executives said Thursday.

Investors Bancorp offered depositors of Marathon Bank the prospect of participating in its second-step conversion from a mutual thrift, Investors CEO Kevin Cummings says.

Investors, which recently agreed to buy Marathon Bank, reported gains in the second quarter from its Brooklyn Federal acquisition and lending.

Toronto-Dominion Bank said it will consider buying assets similar to its purchase of Chrysler Financial Corp. to bolster U.S. operations amid signs of a "modest" turnaround in the world's largest economy.

Another earnings crunch is coming and bank valuations will sink further. That means selling now is the smart move for hundreds of institutions, says Kamal Mustafa, who stress-tests banks and formerly headed M&A at Citibank.

Banks and institutional investors in loans caught a break when the SEC and CFTC decided not to define loan participation agreements as swaps under Dodd-Frank. A decision otherwise would have ended business as usual.

Hudson City Bancorp (HCBK) has historically held on to the mortgage loans it originates, but it will soon start selling some of those loans on the secondary market in an effort to boost its profits.

U.S. Bank has bought a type of corporate credit card network for truckers from prepaid company TransCard.

Strong loan growth at BankUnited (BKU) helped the Miami Lakes, Fla., company post higher second-quarter income and beat analysts' expectations.

Kamal Mustafa, a former global head of M&A at Citibank who now helps to stress-test banks, fears another earnings crunch is coming and that bank valuations will sink lower than they are now.

Hovde Financial has hired two investment bankers, in Beverly Hills, Calif., and Chicago, as the community bank advisor braces for more deals.