Bank channel

Toronto-Dominion Bank's announcement Monday that it plans to purchase South Financial Group Inc. is as notable for what it is not — a failed-bank deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — as for what it is: an acquisition featuring key Treasury Department concessions on Troubled Asset Relief Program-related securities held by the target.

An uptick in product sales across the board seems to suggest investors are ready to reenter the market.

Better grades hinge on ethical conduct, not just products.

Observers say that the financial services company can thrive in a wirehouse-dominated market

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd took to the floor Thursday to beg his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stop adding more amendments, warning the process is in danger of spinning out of control.

Four small banks totaling $730 million in assets were closed late Friday on a relatively light evening for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Like it or not, and most large banks don't, the Volcker Rule to ban proprietary trading is now all but certain to be enacted in regulatory reform.

Though it was clear from the start that a Republican alternative on the consumer bureau was going to fail, GOP lawmakers dragged out the debate rather than allowing the measure to be voted on and moving on to some of the roughly 140 other amendments still to be considered.

The new program provides advisor coverage for B and C clients as well as recruitment gaps.

Community bankers are close to winning a key change to the Senate regulatory reform bill that would require the government to base deposit insurance rates on assets instead of domestic deposits.

Large banks have repeatedly prevailed in battles to preserve federal preemption in Congress and the courts, but that victory string is likely to be broken by the regulatory reform bill being debated in the Senate this week.

The trust company highlights its value add in a series of upcoming print and web ads.

Regulators closed $3.5 billion-asset Frontier Bank in Everett, Wash., and three other smaller banks in the Midwest to bring the year’s failure total to 64.

While customer satisfaction is relatively high at banks, customers’ fuses are getting shorter when it comes to poor service and fees.

By setting up municipal sales desks in foreign offices 10 years ago, top-ranked underwriter Citi had a head start in selling taxable munis to foreign investors, which turned out to be a major boon once Build America Bonds were introduced last year.

No price disclosed for business that offers back-office services for buyout firms

A terrible January paved the way for an okay February, but green shoots are starting to appear, Kehrer-LIMRA’s Stathis said.

Overall sales of annuities through bank holding companies rose 0.5% to $2.62 billion last year, but the results were somewhat skewed.

The "noise" surrounding earnings season faded in the first quarter, and that may have said as much about how banks are shaking off the residue of the crisis as did the cuts in loan-loss provisions or the confident pronouncements of chief executives.

Though smaller companies may still bid on individual failed banks, they may have to enlarge their bids — perhaps significantly — to compete with package buyers.