In what would be its largest acquisition in more 15 years, UnionBanCal Corp. in San Francisco is buying Pacific Capital Corp. in Santa Barbara, Calif., for about $1.5 billion in cash.

HSBC Holdings PLC is planning to sell or close retail operations in seven Asian countries that it has decided not to focus investment on, the Financial Times reported Monday citing the bank's chief executive in Asia Peter Wong.

A breakdown of M&A announcements for the last week

The list of potential bank buyers is growing at a faster rate than the ranks of sellers, according to a new research note by KBW Inc.'s Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc.

Private equity fixed Pacific Capital and has agreed to sell it to UnionBanCal for a healthy price in a slow M&A market. There could have been more deals like this had regulators embraced PE.

Two small Kansas banks that have been discussing a merger for much of the past year have finally pulled the trigger on a deal.

Already an active lender to franchisees of fast-food restaurants, City National Corp. in Los Angeles is opening a loan office in Seattle as part of its strategy to broaden the scope of its restaurant financing.

Fox Chase Bancorp Inc. in Hatboro, Pa., said the planned sale of a pool of problem consumer loans has fallen through and that, as a result, its total nonperforming assets were higher in the fourth quarter than it initially reported.

UnionBanCal is taking the unusual step of marking up the value of Pacific Capital's loan portfolio as part of its $1.5 billion deal for the Santa Barbara, Calif., lender.

Union Bank of California is buying bank holding company Pacific Capital, in one of the largest bank deals in years.

In what would be its largest acquisition in more 15 years, UnionBanCal Corp. in San Francisco is buying Pacific Capital Corp. in Santa Barbara, Calif., for about $1.5 billion in cash.

For a second time in three weeks, regulators have shuttered a bank that others were unwilling to acquire.

Pennsylvania's capital city of Harrisburg, reporting that two-thirds of 44 loans made under the city's small business loan program are delinquent, expects to soon announce the name of a collection agency that will chase the outstanding loans "at no charge".

Buyers' stock has outperformed after about two-thirds of major deal announcements over the last nine months, hinting at a shift from the displeasure acquirers met with in late 2010 and early 2011.

WASHINGTON — The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has approved Capital One Financial Corp.'s acquisition of HSBC Bank USA's credit card portfolio.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. intends to open as many 60 branches and will substantially increase its sales force this year as it looks to strengthen its presence in the Southeast and take advantage of market disruption to add new clients throughout its 15-state footprint.

Prices fell and the pace of dealmaking slowed last month, but March started off strong with another big deal in Texas.

Many private-equity firms hoped to capitalize on the financial crisis through two waves of bank investments. The first, in 2007-8, focused on large investments in major banks. These disappointing investments were too early as industry conditions worsened dragging down these investments.

Richard Hendrix, the president and CEO of FBR & Co., says that earnings and price expectations must "reset" for capital to come back to banks. In a wide-ranging Q&A, he discussed bankers' reluctant to tap capital markets and his belief that it could take time before a meaningful level of IPOs take place.

To create a mobile banking offering that can compete with banks or the likes of Google, the prepaid card marketer Green Dot is purchasing the location-based deals company Loopt.