BBVA's purchase of digital-only "neobank" Simple provides both parties with new strengths. For the bankers on the sidelines, it shines a spotlight on the need to attract affluent young customers with trendy mobile services.

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It has been a year after Stifel bought Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in a quest for more scale in the area of bank advisory services. Thomas Michaud, KBW's CEO, reflects on the past year and evaluates trends and forces in bank M&A and capital raising in coming months.

CenterState Banks (CSFL) in Davenport, Fla., has appointed Ed Kofman to head its loan trading and hedge desk as managing director.

Mercantile Bank (MBWM) in Grand Rapids, Mich., and Firstbank (FBMI) in Alma, Mich., are extending the termination date for their delayed merger.

Park Sterling (PSTB) in Charlotte, N.C., has added to its recently established team in Virginia.

BBVA agreed on Thursday to buy disrupter Simple for $117 million in a bid to improve the Spanish bank's digital properties.

Guernsey Bancorp in Westerville, Ohio, has terminated an agreement to buy Ohio State Bank in Marion.

Umpqua Holdings and Sterling Financial are paying Banner $7 million to take the branches. Though negative bids are uncommon in healthy bank deals, it seems like a small price to get regulators to bless a $2 billion merger.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria has agreed to pay $117 million for online banking startup Simple.

Regulation, succession planning and lending limits are huge issues, particularly for banks with $100 million or less in assets. As a result, more of those banks are taking a hard look at selling themselves.

Hamilton Bank (HBK) in Baltimore has poached three executives from CFG Community Bank in Lutherville, Md.

VantageSouth Bancshares (VSB) in Raleigh, N.C., has redeemed all outstanding shares issued to the Treasury Department under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

PL Capital scored another victory this week when it put an end to a proxy challenge against Alliance Bancorp of Pennsylvania (ALLB) in Broomall.

Banner Corp. (BANR) in Walla Walla, Wash., has agreed to buy six branches in Oregon from Sterling Financial (STSA) in Spokane, Wash.

South Street Financial had just given up on raising capital and had hired Raymond James to evaluate possible suitors when a BNC representative visited the CEO's office to request merger talks.

The biggest banks are coming off a year when their stocks and profits soared. Yet below the surface, they face a number of vexing problems: more regulation, less lucrative trading, an inability to do big deals and lower multiples than many smaller rivals. American Banker staffers discuss whether such factors may some day encourage shareholders to agitate for breakups.

Steven Antonakes, the CFPB's deputy director, gave a speech which indicated the agency has shifted to a hard-line stance regarding compliance with a new mortgage servicing rule that went into effect last month. "Business as usual has ended in the mortgage servicing industry," he said.

Companies want to avoid borrowing from inflexible hedge funds and banks that conduct business with competitors.

Investment bank Houlihan Lokey has added a director with ample experience in mortgage banking deals to its financial institutions group.