Robin McGraw, chief executive of Renasant in Tupelo, Miss., celebrated his deal for First M&F and the University of Mississippi football team's recruiting coup.

Renasant's willingness to pay a premium for First M&F, a small bank in the Deep South, indicates just how hungry banks are to put capital to use.

Breaking up the biggest banks would be futile, onetime Citigroup (NYSE:C) eminence and former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin said on Thursday.

Darrell Fletcher is leader of the Columbus, Ohio, company's new commodities hedging service and its third specialty hire from another bank in recent months.

DBA International, the largest association for debt buyers, announced Thursday that members have amended the organization’s bylaws making Debt Buyer Certification a requirement for DBA membership by 2016.

Renasant in Tupelo will buy First M&F in Kosciusko in a merger of Mississippi banks.

JPMorgan Chasereclaimed the No. 1 title by market value, nudging Wells Fargo, as the impact of last year's wrong-way bet on derivatives fades and investors wager on an investment-banking rebound.

Customers Bank is buying a commercial loan portfolio based in New England from Flagstar. The deal would reunite Jay Sidhu with some valuable former employees.

The recently renamed ConnectOne Bancorp in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., has filed to raise up to $46 million through an initial public offering.

First Niagara (FNFG) in Buffalo has created a banking region that includes branches it bought last year from HSBC.

Flagstar has asked the Treasury to delay the sale of its Tarp shares, will have to pay more than $90 million in connection with a bond insurer's lawsuit, and announced the sale of more commercial loans.

Problem assets, rival bids, unyielding regulators - these are just a few things that spell disaster in bank mergers and acquisitions. The highlights and lowlights of canceled deals in recent years.

The U.S. government has padded its return on aid to Citigroup (NYSE:C) during the financial crisis.

A Chicago private-equity firm has acquired a mortgage company from a struggling Milwaukee bank.

Payments processor Elavon is expanding its distribution network in Canada with a deal to acquire Toronto-based Collective Point of Sale Solutions.

The nation's biggest asset manager now owns roughly 6% of the outstanding stock in UMB, the companies disclosed in Tuesday filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ally, the former lending arm of General Motors, reported earnings of $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter after a $206 million loss a year earlier.

Buying a distressed loan isn't usually considered similar to trolling for discounted airfare.

Kind words by Stewart McClure, the head of Somerset Hills Bancorp, for Kevin Cummings, the CEO of rival Investors Bancorp, are part of a mutual admiration society budding in New Jersey banking.

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty said Monday that a U.S. Bancorp unit is a lender to Huntingdon Life Sciences, a U.K.-based research facility that helps makers of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, cosmetics and other products assess the safety of their wares.