ING Groep NV has scrapped plans to sell its insurance business in Belgium as a stand-alone operation, highlighting the difficulties financial companies may have shedding assets in currently choppy markets.

Encore Capital Group Inc., a San Diego-based debt buyer, announced the resolution of litigation brought against the company earlier this year by the Texas attorney general's office. Terms of the resolution were not disclosed.

2011 was the slowest year for bank M&A in two or three decades, depending on whose count you use. Don't expect a big wave next year, though pressure on small banks to sell will intensify.

Edwin Hale officially stepped down Thursday as chairman and CEO of 1st Mariner in Baltimore. The banking company named interim successors.

Continental Illinois' internal auditors had been documenting the deterioration of underwriting quality. Unfortunately, no one listened.

EverBank Financial is considering buying parts of MetLife Home Loans of Irving, Texas, according to industry advisors.

The title insurance unit of First American Financial Corp. has agreed to acquire Hexter-Fair Title Co. in Dallas.

CIT Group says it will redeem an additional $2 billion of 7% Series A Second Lien Notes as part of its effort to refinance its post-bankruptcy debt.

United Community Financial Corp. in Youngstown, Ohio, completed another step in its capital-raising plan with the sale of four branches to Croghan Bancshares Inc. in Fremont, Ohio.

Federal pressure to repay Tarp aid is weighing on the minds of prospective sellers, SCBT's Hill and others say.

The wide disparity in valuations is driving the less desperate of would-be sellers to wait for a less volatile environment.

Flush with capital after raising roughly $1.1 billion in a stock sale late last year, Capitol Federal Financial Inc. in Topeka, Kan., now plans to deploy some of that capital by repurchasing up to 10% of its shares.

eBay's acquisition of BillSafe, which lets shoppers pay for purchases only after they receive a mailed invoice, shows its commitment to the instant-credit model. But observers warn that this model requires finely-tuned risk management to guard against fraud or excess delinquencies.

ESSA Bancorp Inc. in Stroudsburg, Pa., announced early Thursday that it is buying the $421 million-asset First Star Bancorp Inc. in Bethlehem, Pa., for $24.2 million in cash and stock.

eBay announced today that it has acquired Billsafe, a provider of purchase-on-invoice technology in Germany. eBay plans to combine Billsafe with its PayPal subsidiary in Germany.

New Century Bancorp in Dunn, N.C., has agreed to sell two of its branches to Lumbee Guaranty Bank in Pembroke, N.C.

BNC Bancorp in High Point, N.C., has agreed to buy KeySource Financial Inc. in Durham, N.C., in an all-stock deal valued at $12.2 million.

Bank of America dumped close to $1 billion in credit card assets in two separate deals announced on Wednesday, as part of its effort to slim down and focus on its core business lines.

Bank of America Corp. on Dec. 21 sold $700 million in credit card assets to U.S. Bancorp in the struggling Charlotte, N.C., company’s latest effort to slim down.

First National Bank of Omaha next year will launch three cobranded credit card programs, Steve Eulie, the president of First National's First BankCard credit card division, said.