John Allison may have retired as BB&T's CEO in 2008 but he still has strong opinions about the economy and banking industry. In a wide-ranging interview, he projects five years of stagnant growth, mixed results for M&A and 5-10% job cuts in the banking industry.

The largest shareholder at HF Financial Corp. has nominated its own slate of directors to challenge the candidates being backed by the management of the Sioux Falls, S.D., thrift company.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency closed First National Bank of Florida, in Milton, on Friday.

Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Ind., plans another round of branch consolidations as it integrates the failed Integra Bank.

Regulators should not allow any more bank mergers if the resulting entity would exceed $100 billion in assets. The return is just not worth the risk.

Wells Fargo & Co. is considering placing a bid for the private banking business of Belgian bank KBC Group NV, a person familiar with the situation said Friday.

Safe. Small. Privately Held. Those were the descriptions of the five M&A deals that occurred in the span of a few days. A lot has to change before many prospective buyers and sellers take the plunge.

S1 has postponed the shareholder meeting it scheduled to vote on its planned merger with Fundtech. The meeting, originally scheduled for Sept. 22, is now planned for Oct. 13. S1 still faces a hostile bid from ACI Worldwide.

Bank of North Carolina in Thomasville, N.C., announced Thursday that it is buying Regent Bank in Greenville, S.C., for $9.8 million.

Cullen/Frost CEO Dick Evans, whose company dominates its home base of San Antonio, tells American Banker about his strategies for maintaining that market share, dealing with new regulations, and looking for acquisition targets.

Equity Bank in Andover, Kan., is bulking up in its home state with deals to acquire a small bank in Lawrence and four branches in Topeka from a Missouri bank that is exiting the market.

Regional-sized bank holding companies, which must submit resolution plans, say their rules should not mirror those of the biggest firms.

August was a difficult month for bank stocks. The KBW bank index fell at one time during the month by over 20% before recovering to a month-end 13.4% decline. This pattern has been consistent for bank stocks, which have retreated from their April highs due to the return of macroeconomic concerns. The KBW index is down 23.1% while the broader S&P 500 is only off 3.7%, year-to-date.

AmericanWest Bank has struck its third deal this year, this time forViking Financial Services Corp. in Seattle.

In an effort build scale and improve efficiency, Haverhill Bank in Massachusetts has struck a deal to merge with Economy Co-operative Bank in Merrimac.

Bank of America's Montag and Darnell received broad power to downsize the company. They don't plan to blow it up, but will ramp up selective sales of servicing rights, equity stakes in other businesses and undervalued assets.

TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. isn't interested in acquiring the assets of E-Trade Financial Corp., the head of the U.S. online broker said.

For CrossFirst, the last three years have been filled with perseverance. It spent three years trying to raise capital and 13 months cleaning up a troubled bank before regulators would allow it to merge it with its de novo bank.

Equifax Inc. has acquired Datum, a Costa Rican credit reporting company.

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