First Niagara (FNFG) in Buffalo, N.Y. is looking for a permanent chief executive following the abrupt departure of John Koelmel.

Insurers, private-equity firms and others could swoop in and take underwriting and syndication business (and employees) from banks held back by new capital requirements.

First Financial Corp. (THFF) of Terre Haute, Ind., is buying seven branches and two drive-up locations in Illinois from Bank of America (BAC).

A unit of SVB Financial Group (SIVB) in Santa Clara, Calif., plans to raise $300 million for a venture capital fund.

BankUnited, the Florida bank led by John Kanas, has hired two of his former colleagues at Capital One — Joe Roberto and Kelly Sheehan — to run its nascent operation in the Big Apple.

HomeStreet (HMST) in Seattle may be nearing an exit from a cease-and-desist order after paying an important debt.

Columbia Banking System (COLB) in Tacoma, Wash., and West Coast Bancorp (WCBO) in Lake Oswego, Ore., announced late Monday that shareholders from both companies approved West Coast's planned sale to Columbia.

Consumer bankers are reluctant to start charging customers new fees for existing products. But Capital One's Jonathan Witter pointed to the flexibility banks offers in pricing business-banking products as an example of how they could generate more fee revenue on the consumer side.

Heritage Financial is paying 1.5 times tangible book value for Valley Community, but the markets welcomed the deal because Heritage expects to slash the seller's expenses as much as 50% because of market overlaps.

HSBC agreed to sell its Canadian store card unit to Toronto-Dominion Bank as it closes its consumer-finance business in the country.

U.S. Bancorp (USB) has agreed to purchase Deutsche Bank's (DB) municipal bond trustee business.

A breakdown of M&A announcements in the financial services industry for the week ended March 16.

Starbuck Bancshares has sweetened the consideration it will pay for PremierWest Bancorp (PRWT) in Medford, Ore.

Landmark Credit Union may buy Hartford Savings Bank in Wisconsin, the National Credit Union Administration board decided Thursday.

The Fed's rejection of BB&T's capital plan likely bars the serial acquirer from big acquisitions for several months, but it might be able to pull off a small one.

The husband and wife who lead Southern National Bancorp of Virginia (SONA) want to make one more acquisition before they try to sell their bank and retire.

Liberty Bank's deal for Southern Connecticut Bancorp could signal an M&A trend — mutual thrifts with lots of capital acquiring small, publicly traded banks.

PremierWest Bancorp (PRWT) in Medford, Ore., has granted itself more time to persuade shareholders to approve a takeover by Starbuck Bancshares.

The anger against the country's biggest banks is ready to boil over, Harris Simmons, the chairman and chief executive of Zions Bancorp., warned Wednesday.

State Bank Financial (STBZ) in Atlanta has lowered its 2012 earnings to address an accounting error in tied to loans it obtained from failed-bank deals.