Bank channel

It was another busy — and costly — night for regulators in the Southeast. Of the nation's six failures Friday — bringing the year's total to 157 — three were in Georgia and one was in ...

An unexpected development like Friday's news — the takeover of one of the 50 biggest banks in the U.S. — may become increasingly common in 2011, experts say.

The Financial Services Authority has fined a former executive from Toronto Dominion Bank $1.2 million for intentionally mispricing trading positions in credit derivatives to cover his losses and banned him from working in the financial services industry.

Citigroup is touting all the bells and whistles of its newest outlet, but CEO Vikram Pandit had it right when he said that "ultimately, what makes for a smart bank is smart bankers."

Community banks’ investment programs booked a modest improvement in the third quarter.

Right or wrong, rumors of a Florida expansion by PNC touched a nerve with investors who are eager for straggling banks like Regions and BankAtlantic to get back on course.

Outgoing House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank sharply criticized incoming chairman Rep. Spencer Bachus on Wednesday, ridiculing the Alabama Republican for reportedly saying "Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks."

Most billion-dollar community banks have skirted the surge of traditional mergers and acquisitions that has engulfed their smaller peers — until now.

Large banks won't know until the middle of next year what — if any — extra tax they'll face for being deemed "too big to fail."

On the same day it proposed new capital requirements for all institutions, the FDIC's board of directors approved a 2011 agency budget of $3.96B, a 0.7% drop from the previous year.

Bank of America seems to have taken over for Citigroup as the poster child for what can go wrong at a big, complicated bank.

More companies are shuttering branches obtained in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.-backed deals. In most cases, buyers took on branches in markets beyond their geographical scope, or came to a later realization that it would cost too much to maintain and compete for greater market share in single-branch markets.

In the third quarter, most big regionals exceeded the pending common equity targets established so far, but some may still face a long road out of capital purgatory.

Positions are being funded with the help of $2.4 million in state tax credits.

Data gathered by the deposit research firm Market Rates Insight shows that total deposits increased by a full trillion dollars in the 36 months preceding October, despite the steady plunge of rates paid in that same time frame.

Along with the executives of Comerica Inc., and U.S. Bancorp, Steinour argued that a partial near-term economic recovery was sufficient for his bank to again achieve increased loan volume and steady profitability.

The idea that the banking business, especially at the largest banks, is back to normal is dangerous. Granted, most of the giants reported better-than-expected profits for the second and third quarters, but the performance was not based on sustainable factors — not for all of them or even most of them.

Dividend increases, acquisitions and loan growth — three things big banks and their shareholders have been longing for — could be in the cards for 2011, CEOs said Tuesday.

Rep. Spencer Bachus was formally selected by the Republican Steering Committee on Tuesday to serve as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee next year.

Bank of New York Mellon Wealth Management announced it plans to double its office space in Miami.Year-over-year, sales in Florida have increased 20% for the firm.