Zions Bancorp. (ZION) in Salt Lake City plans to auction up to $250 million of debt through its online broker-dealer subsidiary.

Atlantic Coast Financial (ACFC) in Jacksonville, Fla., has picked a veteran of Fifth Third Bancorp (FITB) and the former Wachovia to be its new chief executive.

Evertec (EVTC), a payments business Popular started 25 years ago, filed a secondary offering with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to sell 20 million shares, including 9 million shares currently held by the $37 billion-asset Popular.

FirstMerit, M&T Bank and New York Community Bancorp are buyers in different stages of the acquisition process, and their executives together provided an insightful look into the full M&A experience this week.

Wells Fargo, the nation's largest mortgage lender, is exploring the sale of some servicing rights because the market is flush with potential buyers and it sees little opportunity to cross-sell many servicing clients.

Arrow Global, a UK-based buyer of delinquent consumer debt from credit card companies and banks, is set to list on Britain's FTSE index on Tuesday, a sign the industry is growing as banks attempt to boost their balance sheets.

The most notable quotes from American Banker stories of the previous week. Readers are encouraged to add their own observations in the Comments fields at the bottom of each slide.

Old National Bancorp in Evansville, Ind., has agreed to buy Tower Financial in Fort Wayne.

Simmons First National (SFNC) in Pine Bluff, Ark., had the winning bid to buy Metropolitan National Bank during a bankruptcy auction.

Cardinal Financial Corp. (CFNL) has agreed to buy United Financial Banking (UFBC) for nearly $52 million. The two companies are in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington.

Dallas hedge fund Clover Partners is causing Texas-size headaches for two small Massachusetts thrifts, Hampden Bancorp and Chicopee Bancorp.

A breakdown of M&A announcements in the financial services industry for the week ended Sept. 7.

Capital Bank Financial in Coral Gables, Fla., has gone more than a year since its last acquisition — a common problem for M&A-minded banks these days. Its leaders urged shareholders to be patient in a sales pitch that other execs in the same bind could learn from.

Umpqua Holdings, Oregon's biggest bank, is in advanced talks to buy Sterling Financial, the lender backed by Warburg Pincus and Thomas H. Lee Partners, said people with knowledge of the discussions.

Capital One has bolstered its commercial-lending team by hiring bankers away from JPMorgan Chase and the CIT Group.

Citi has completed its purchase of electronics retail giant Best Buy's U.S. credit card portfolio from Capital One.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta has approved two Atlantic Coast Financial (ACFC) board nominees proposed by dissident investor Jay Sidhu.

The current bank M&A market is too hostile for Royal Bank of Scotland to consider completely selling off its U.S. subsidiary, the incoming chief executive of that unit says.

Wilshire Bancorp in Los Angeles said Monday that it had hired Jung Hak Son as its chief marketing officer, a position he took over in 2009.

DECA Financial Services LLC, a nationally licensed collection agency, has announced the signing of a marketing agreement with Healthpac Computer Systems Inc., based in Savannah, Ga.