John Hairston will stay in the newly combined role, while Carl Chaney plans to retire on Dec. 31. Hancock has been pressed by Wall Street in recent years to get more aggressive cutting costs after buying Whitney Bank.

Royal Financial in Chicago has agreed to buy PNA Bank in Chicago.

New York financial regulator Benjamin Lawsky held up the deal shortly after it was announced in January, and regulatory and legal concerns had mounted since then.

Iberiabank Corp. in Lafayette, La., was initially willing to pay up to $24 million more than what it eventually agreed to pay for Florida Bank Group in Tampa.

J. Thomas Wiley will become chief executive of the company's banking unit. The move could free up Joe Evans, the company's CEO, to focus on deploying capital, which could include more acquisitions.

BB&T successfully bought a number of thrifts in the aftermath of the S&L crisis. Retired BB&T CEO John Allison explains his company’s success while discussing how he sold deals to leaders of target institutions. Part 3 of 5.

Sturgis Bancorp in Sturgis, Mich., has agreed to buy West Michigan Savings Bank in Bangor.

Kelly King of BB&T is an M&A trailblazer, but he isn't doing so intentionally. In announcing plans to buy Susquehanna Bancshares, King said he believes more bankers are becoming more confident maneuvering the choppy regulatory environment.

Richard Davis, asked during a conference about BB&T's $2.5 billion purchase of Susquehanna Bancshares, made it clear that his company has no interest in large, out-of-market acquisitions.

While banks have spent tens of billions of dollars to settle investigations related to the sale of faulty mortgages, probes into everything from foreign-exchange trading to subprime automobile lending are forcing many of them to continue adding to their legal reserves.

HomeTrust Bancshares in Asheville, N.C., has hired a team of commercial lenders to open its first office in Raleigh, N.C.

Retired BB&T CEO John A. Allison shares tips on brokering a deal and making an acquisition thrive in his latest book. This is part 2 of 5.

BB&T has agreed to buy Susquehanna Bancshares for about $2.5 billion in cash and shares to expand in the Mid-Atlantic region.

The new owners of First Mariner Bank believe the Baltimore bank could return to profitability in the first quarter.

BB&T completed more than 100 acquisitions under now-retired Chief Executive John A. Allison. In an excerpt from his latest book, Allison discusses his reasoning for M&A, while providing a blueprint for scouting targets. This is part 1 of 5.

Banc of California has completed its acquisition of the Southern California branch network of Popular Community Bank.

First Niagara Financial Group raised to $1.1 billion the amount of the goodwill impairment charge it recorded in the third quarter, as the Buffalo, N.Y., company cuts the value of assets acquired since 2009.

Harvard Illinois Bancorp in Harvard, Ill., which recently disclosed that it had been exposed to a fraud scheme involving certain investments, has hired an investment bank to help it "evaluate strategic alternatives."

Central Bancshares in Muscatine, Iowa, has agreed to buy Buffalo Prairie State Bank in Buffalo Prairie, Ill.

Bay Commercial Bank in Walnut Creek, Calif., has stepped in to outbid a rival to buy Valley Community Bank in Pleasanton, Calif.