Gulf Coast Community Bank in Florida agreed to sell itself last month after spending six frustrating years trying to tackle credit issues and angling for a settlement tied to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Customers Bancorp in Wyomissing, Pa., is raising another $52.5 million from the latest in a series of public offerings this year.

Revelations from the last several weeks once again underscore the need for effective reputational risk management.

Nicolet Bankshares in Green Bay, Wis., has agreed to buy First Menasha Bancshares in Neenah, Wis.

Seacoast Banking Corp. of Florida in Stuart has agreed to buy GulfShore Bancshares in Tampa, Fla.

Regulators have pressed banks to watch out for rising concentrations of commercial real estate loans. Some banks have paid heed, but others are skyrocketing past recommended thresholds.

Two top executives said the scandal-plagued bank has managed to minimize the financial damage and can continue to grow amid some reforms. Yet they acknowledged that the full toll has yet to be realized, and the company announced it had significantly raised its estimated legal exposure.

The intense focus on sales cultures can be frustrating, but it also presents an opportunity for everyone within a bank to get on the same page about what the institution stands for and is trying to accomplish.

Bay Banks of Virginia in Kilmarnock has agreed to buy Virginia BanCorp in Petersburg.

The U.S. is the only industrialized nation without mandated paid parental leave, but innovative leave policies are an opportunity to attract and retain employees in a highly competitive industry.

Heartland Financial in Dubuque, Iowa, is looking to raise $53.5 million through a public offering.

Consumer compliance was already an important issue for regulators who vet bank deals, but it is expected to move up on their priority list after Wells' phony-account saga. Banks that seek M&A approvals should make sure their cross-sale and incentives policies — along with those of their targets — are bulletproof.

Visa closed its acquisition of Visa Europe in late June, ending a year of negotiations and years of speculation in the payments industry.

Some former customers of First Niagara Bank in Buffalo, N.Y., which was bought by KeyCorp last month, will receive up to $22 million in refunds of overdraft and bounced-check fees, according to a recently disclosed regulatory order.

BNC Bancorp in High Point, N.C., has rebranded its banking unit to reflect its expansion beyond the Tarheel State. The $7.5 billion-asset company said in a press release Tuesday that Bank of North Carolina is now BNC Bank.

Square 1 Bank, a unit of PacWest Bancorp, has hired two financial services veterans to expand its banking services for venture capital and private-equity firms and named a new leader of that practice.

A small New Jersey bank that is a so-called rent-a-charter partner of more than a dozen marketplace lenders has raised millions of dollars from some household names in the venture capital world.

As more departments reach for a piece of the technology budget, banks need to improve coordination to make sure the money is spent efficiently.

Heartland Financial in Dubuque, Iowa, has agreed to buy Founders Bancorp in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

As banks grow and their business models become more complex, some find that adding a general counsel to the staff makes sense. Bank SNB in Stillwater, Okla., says hiring one allowed it to reduce its legal fees by 80%. Here are the pros and cons.