Bad times are driving a large majority of banks to rethink their operating models, a KPMG survey says. Wealth management and technology are priorities, branches may have to be turned into marketing stores, and M&A is still back burner.

A Kansas banking company that last week raised fresh capital to fuel its growth has struck a deal that would more than double its size.

BNC Bancorp has no immediate plans to exit the program, despite recently raising $73 million from a private placement. CEO Swope Montgomery believes BNC's acquisitions will more than offset the current 5% borrowing rate for the Tarp funds.

Ocwen Financial (OCN) has purchased the commercial servicing rights portfolio of Aurora Bank.

Asta Funding Inc., an Englewood Cliffs, N.J.-based public debt buyer, announced late Monday it had repurchased one million shares of its common stock from investment fund management firm Peters MacGregor Capital Management Pty. Ltd. in a privately negotiated deal. Peters MacGregor Capital is an Australian fund manager that specializes in global equities.

In what would be its first acquisition in nearly a decade, Peoples Bancorp (PEBO) in Marietta, Ohio, announced Tuesday that it is buying Sistersville Bancorp in West Virginia for $9.8 million in cash.

Mortgage servicing company Nationstar Mortgage Holdings Inc. (NSM) has agreed to acquire roughly $10.4 billion in residential mortgage servicing rights from Bank of America Corp. (BAC) in a co-investment with Newcastle Investment Corp. (NCT).

BNC, of High Point, N.C., would pay $35 million for First Trust, its fifth deal in the Carolinas in nine months.

A breakdown of M&A announcements for the week ended June 2.

Recent proxy battles show that the high-stakes clashes are getting pricey for management teams and irate shareholders.

When making a point to banker groups about how much the week-to-week banking habits of Americans have changed in recent years, one simple question tends to create much side chatter, nods and chuckles.

Freed from an enforcement order that led it to sharply reduce its assets, Guaranty Bancorp in Denver is now turning its attention to growth.

TransUnion announced on Monday that it has finalized the purchase of a majority share in CRBAfrica, a credit risk management organization with a presence in eight countries across Africa. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Bank of America (BAC), before its shareholders approved the bank's $50 billion buy of Merrill Lynch in December 2008, was informed of far greater losses at the investment firm than had been disclosed in proxy documents filed with regulators, B of A's then-chief executive, Kenneth Lewis, disclosed in court documents filed late Sunday in a shareholder lawsuit, the New York Times reported Sunday on its website.

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Berkshire Hills is paying for its latest acquisition, of Beacon Federal, in a way that protects shareholder returns at the expense of its tangible book value.

American Chartered Bank in Schaumberg, Ill., has sold its health savings account business to Minnesota insurance company SelectAccount.

Equity Bancshares in Wichita, Kan., has filled its tank to fuel growth. The $600 million-asset company raised $20.4 million in capital that it plans to use for acquisitions and organic growth.

United Financial of Massachusetts is buying Connecticut's New England Banchares in a deal that makes a lot of strategic sense. Yet investors have given the buyer a rousing thumbs-down.

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