Demand for bank stocks is up this year, but Wall Street is showing reluctance to fund a certain kind of lender: Community banks with dim prospects for making acquisitions. MetroCorp Bancshares of Houston, First Community of Lexington, S.C., and Northeast Bancorp of Lewiston, Maine all find themselves in this situation.

Central Bank in Stillwater, Minn., is buying another distressed bank. It has a deal to buy the struggling Bank of Naples in Florida.

Bank of America is taking its small Florida pilot short-sale incentive program national.

When Residential Capital Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this week it left behind a trail of unsecured creditors with claims totaling well over $1 billion, according to court documents.

Bank of Montreal's (BMO) private-client group is eyeing Singapore for wealth-management operations as it expands its wealth footprint in Asia.

First Federal Savings Bank in Elizabethtown, Ky., is planning to sell four more of its branches as part of its ongoing effort to beef up its capital levels.

At least two bank advisory firms are structuring pools of nonperforming assets for community banks. The pools give the sellers a better chance of attracting buyers, who generally prefer buying assets in bigger lots.

The Japanese parent of Union Bank in San Francisco announced Tuesday that the bank's chief executive, Masashi Oka, has taken on the additional title of CEO for the Americas.

Collateralized loan obligations are gaining new life as a way for nonbanks to finance loans to midsize businesses. NXT Capital's chief financial officer, Neil Rudd, explains how in detailing a recent deal.

Less than a month after taking over a failed Maryland bank, Sonabank in McLean, Va., has unloaded the bulk of the problem loans it inherited in the deal.

ING Group's sale of its Asian asset-management arm has attracted bids from Japan's Nikko Asset Management, Australia's Macquarie Group and others, in an auction that could value the operations at about $500 million.

Experts quizzed by the U.K. government's Treasury Select Committee warned that it could take years for Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) to be fully privatized, as the government tries to balance getting a fair price for its stake while also enticing a suitable buyer.

Institutional Shareholder Service backs the Renton, Wash., company's director nominees. Dissident shareholder Joseph Stilwell is trying to get his general counsel added to the board.

A breakdown of M&A announcements for the week ended May 12.

Sometimes there are more ways to pay for a bank than in cash or stock. Just ask Citizens South, which extracted job protections and a charitable donation for its local community before agreeing to sell to Park Sterling.

Both sides of a bank deal need to meet with their regulators well ahead of announcing it in today's complicated world.

The investment group Castine Capital Management has been sharply reducing its ownership stake in First California Financial Group (FCAL) even as it has been pressuring the company to sell itself.

As acquisition financing deals pick up, big banks are seeing a growing number of opportunities to sponsor loans to corporate borrowers.

Park Sterling Corporation in Charlotte, N.C., announced Monday that it is buying Citizens South Bank in Gastonia, N.C., in a deal that would instantly double its size.