Word that a banking pool had returned its money to investors prompted our assistant managing editor to take a second look at the state of banking. The answers are discomforting.

State Street Corp. said Tuesday that it had acquired Complementa Investment-Controlling AG, an analytics firm based in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

First Financial Holdings Inc. in Charleston, S.C., said Monday that it has completed its sale of its managing general insurance agency subsidiary to Burns & Wilcox Ltd. of Farmington Hills, Mich.

The ailing Central Progressive Bank in Lacombe, La., may have found its savior on the other side of Lake Pontchartrain.

Central Federal Corp. in Fairlawn, Ohio, is set to bring in a new chief executive and president after it raises up to $37.5 million.

Under orders from regulators to beef up its capital levels, Legacy Bank of Florida in Boca Raton has raised $2.8 million in new capital and has deals in place in to receive an additional $13.5 million.

The two Pennsylvania banks renegotiated part of their deal, to make it harder for Tower to back out of its sale to Susquehanna. It's another example of volatile stocks complicating bank M&A.

There are 7, 500 banks in this country. Of those, 6,800 have asset sizes of a billion dollars or less. This diversity enables our banking system to support the world's largest and most dynamic economy, and it is what sets us apart from other countries whose banking industries are highly concentrated. Prosperous, American-based global enterprises — which do business with America's largest banks — beget mid-size suppliers that are served by regional banks. Small businesses in this supply chain are in turn nurtured by community banks, which work to make Main Streets across America vibrant.

State Bank Financial has bought 10 failed banks since 2009, and CEO Joe Evans discusses his outlook for more deals. He also discusses challenges with loan demand, and the long-term outlook for his bank in its core markets of Atlanta and Macon, Ga.

Fundtech's withdrawal and the lack of a white knight force payments software company S1 to merge with a rival.

Private equity investor Wilbur Ross will zero in on Europe for big deals. Meanwhile, the U.S. banks he has invested in will be busy buying small banks in their regions, he says.

B. Riley & Co. analyst Rich Eckert thinks the government "should get out of the way" of the housing market, and discussing the potential effects of mortgage refinancing programs.

Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett, who has sold most of the company's holdings in European sovereign debt, said Berkshire isn't interested in helping to bail out lenders on the continent.

Fifth Third officials and debt-busting radio personality Dave Ramsey talk about how they scoped each other out before working together to teach kids how to dodge financial trouble.

HSBC Holdings PLC is moving ahead with the sale of its general insurance business and has approached potential buyers in Europe and Asia, a person familiar the situation told Dow Jones Newswires Friday.

Banco Popular de Puerto Rico in San Juan has completed a deal to sell roughly $358 million of mostly nonperforming commercial real estate and construction loans to a joint venture created by Goldman Sachs & Co., Caribbean Property Group LLC and East Rock Capital LLC.

Banco Santander SA Chairman Emilio Botin on Friday declared a moratorium on big acquisitions.

The biggest outside investor in Cardinal Bankshares has ramped up his fight against the company, creating a website and calling on shareholders to force management to sell.

"In financial ecosystems, evolutionary forces have often been survival of the fattest rather than the fittest." So says Andrew Haldane, Executive Director for Financial Stability at the Bank of England. He is right.

Irene Dorner, president and chief executive of HSBC's U.S. bank, is looking beyond the sales of her credit cards business and 195 upstate New York branches and planning to expand HSBC's operations in California and the West Coast.