There are few clear home runs when it comes to acquisitions in Florida. Controversy with would-be sellers such as BankAtlantic and BankUnited only serve to highlight issues facing regional banks that want to bulk up in the state.

First Community Bancshares' $40.6 million deal for Peoples Bank of Virginia shows how deals can get done in the slow M&A market and that some can be very simple.

PennyMac founder and former Countrywide president Stanford L. Kurland has taken his share of criticism for helping to start the financial crisis. Now he is singing the praises of the government's latest attempt to fix it.

First Community Bancshares Inc. in Bluefield, Va., is bulking up in the Richmond market with a deal to acquire the $286 million-asset Peoples Bank in Virginia for about $40.6 million in cash and stock.

GFA Federal Credit Union of Gardener, Mass., has agreed to acquire Monadnock Community Bank, a troubled former credit union located in nearby Peterborough, N.H., in the second credit union deal for a bank over the past few months.

Emboldened by the high premium PNC paid for some Tampa branches, BankAtlantic's Alan Levan demanded a lot for the thrift and got it from BB&T, according to a judge's order this week that blocked BankAtlantic's sale.

Rich trading multiples for banking companies like Prosperity in Houston make accretive acquisitions relatively simple. Institutions with such powerful stock currencies are few, however.

The slow M&A market gives the Pennsylvania bank little choice but to digest its two acquisitions and wait for conditions to improve, CEO Reuter says.

Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc. in Flint. Mich., would need to increase its size by roughly 25% to offset any costs associated with crossing the $10 billion-asset threshold, according to Chief Executive Cathleen Nash.

The Blackstone Group has converted some of its shares in BankUnited Inc. into non-voting stock in a move that should allow its own chief executive' to keep his personal financials private.

Beach Business Bank recently agreed to settle a lawsuit brought against it by shareholders corralled by a law firm specializing in litigation tied to acquisitions. Those types of investigations used to be reserved for larger deals but are quickly becoming a mainstay as consolidation picks up.

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. — Credit union giants Kinecta FCU and NuVision FCU have called off their proposed combination, which would have been the second biggest credit union merger ever, creating a $4.4 billion credit union.

BOK Financial Corp. in Tulsa is eyeing acquisitions of banks and nonbanks as it looks to both increase market share in areas where it operates and generate more revenues from fees.

New York private equity firm J.C. Flowers is considering bids for insurance assets being sold by ING and for Royal Bank of Scotland's Direct Line Group insurance business, according to people with direct knowledge of the talks.

Fiserv is merging its two person-to-person payment offerings, Popmoney and ZashPay, and will market the combined offering as Popmoney.

Aktiv Kapital, an Oslo, Norway-based accounts receivable management firm, announced this week that it purchased a $750 million face value portfolio of non-performing consumer loans originated in the United Kingdom.

DBA International, an association representing the debt buying industry, announced Thursday its Board of Directors has unanimously approved a process to create a National Debt Buyer Certification Program.

Royal Bank of Canada earned nearly $1.9 billion its fiscal first quarter, down slightly from a year earlier but ahead of fourth-quarter results, as earnings in its Canadian banking operations reached a record level.

Toronto-Dominion Bank posted a first-quarter profit of almost $1.5 billion bolstered by record retail earnings, and while results came in just shy of year-earlier levels, the bank said its businesses exceeded its expectations during the period.

Homes listed in some stage of foreclosure or bank owned accounted for 24% of all U.S. residential sales in the fourth quarter, up from 20% in the previous quarter but down 26% of all sales in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the 2011 U.S. Foreclosure Sales Report released Thursday by RealtyTrac.