Aided by its January purchase State Bancorp, Valley National Bancorp (VLY) in Wayne, N.J., reported strong loan and deposit growth in the first quarter, though its overall earnings declined slightly from the prior year due to merger related costs and other one-time events.

Arnold Schwarzenegger said, when he was first elected as governor of California, that he wanted to "blow up the boxes" of the state bureaucracy.

Banco Santander SA plans to list its fast-growing Mexican unit later this year and has begun preparations to sell 25% of the unit in an initial public offering, Chief Executive Alfredo Saenz said Thursday.

The Columbus, Ga., bank is a constant subject of M&A speculation. First-quarter results suggest it could go it alone for a while, but accounting, capital-raising and earnings challenges may be hard to overcome long term, experts say.

The social network just wants to know everything about the consumer. Payments happen to be the best way for people to show they really "like" a product.

Solid revenue growth and a continued decline in problem loans helped boost Trustmark's first-quarter profit by 27% over the same period last year, to $30.3 million.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and BB&T will still be standing a decade from now, BB&T CEO Kelly King says. His list omits a number of other prominent players, including Citigroup.

A surge in mortgage lending combined with improved asset quality and expense control led the embattled First Mariner Bancorp in Baltimore to its first profitable quarter in more than five years for the quarter that ended March 31.

William Lansing, the new chief executive of credit score giant Fair Isaac, discusses his relatively weak appetite for deal-making and defends the reputation of the FICO score.

Making good on its promise to bulk up in asset management, City National Bank (CYN) in Los Angeles announced Wednesday that it is buying Rochdale Investment Management in New York and combining it with its asset management subsidiary.

When most major banks reach the end of the road in their efforts to collect on defaulted credit card accounts, they often sell rights to the soured loans to debt collectors for pennies on the dollar. Those pennies can add up to tens of millions in dollars in revenue for a large card issuer, but American Express (AXP) and USAA have long left that money on the table.

DBA International, an asssociation representing the debt buying industry, has selected the members of its Debt Buyer Certification Task Force and the group held its first meeting last week.

EverBank Financial finally set a price for a planned $225 million capital raise after sitting on its initial public offering for half a year.

Roberto Herencia, chairman of First Bancorp in Puerto Rico and an ex-CEO of Banco Popular North America, is the investment group's leader.

Zions Bancorporation's (ZION) repayment of half of its funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program tamped down earnings in the first quarter, but its core results still handily beat expectations.

The executives of United Western Bank filed a motion for summary judgment that also spares no criticism of how the OTS handled the Denver thrift's failure in early 2011. The motion claims that the now-defunct regulator closed the thrift despite evidence that management had just raised $200 million in life-saving capital.

A coalition of activists, clergymen, union advocates and residents from across the country is planning to hold a large demonstration at the Wells Fargo annual meeting on Tuesday.

Buyers and sellers still cannot agree on price, the heads of six acquisition-minded banks said in first-quarter earnings calls.

A number of banks are asking shareholders to convert preferred shares to common stock to lift tangible common equity ratios.

Shareholders of SunTrust, BB&T and PNC will vote on say on pay, quiz executives on future plans.