Peoples Bancorp in Marietta, Ohio, terminated its pension plan. The $8.9 billion-asset company said in a press release that it settled the remaining benefit obligation of $7.7 million during the third quarter. Peoples said it doesn’t expect any more expenses tied to ending the plan, which had been closed to new entrants since January 2010. Overall profit still rose by 23% from a year earlier, to $31.9 million. Peoples is

Flagship Financial Group in Eden Prairie, Minn., and Security Bancshares in Glencoe, Minn., are planning to merge before buying another bank. The companies, which are under common control, plan to complete their merger by the end of this year, Andy Schornack, Flagship’s CEO, tweeted. Flagship is the parent of the $319 million-asset Flagship Bank, while Security Bancshares is the holding company for the $703 million-asset Security Bank & Trust. Those

SmartFinancial in Knoxville, Tenn., repositioned its securities portfolio during the third quarter. The $4.8 billion-asset company said in a press release that it sold $159.6 million of available-for-sale securities at a $6.8 million pretax loss. It reinvested the proceeds into higher-yielding assets. “We strategically took advantage of a balance sheet optimization opportunity,” Billy Carroll, SmartFinancial’s president and CEO, said in the release. “We felt it prudent to capitalize on the

Huntington Bancshares in Columbus, Ohio, plans to close 34 branches early next year. The $187 billion-asset company said that 11 of the branches are located inside Cub stores around Minneapolis, according to published reports. Another seven branches are in Ohio and nine are in Michigan. The closures represent about 3% of Huntington’s total branch network. "We regularly review our distribution network ... to meet our customers' evolving needs," Kris Dahl,

Hope Bancorp in Los Angeles announced a cost-cutting plan that includes an undisclosed number of layoffs. The $20.1 billion-asset company said in a press release that the goal is to reduce annual expenses by $40 million with about 85% coming from layoffs. The plan includes reduced staffing, branch closures, the wind-down of noncore businesses and “operational process improvements.” Hope said it expects to incur $12 million in one-time charges during

Quarterly profit at Regions Financial in Birmingham, Ala., took a hit after another large instance of check fraud. The $153.6 billion-asset company disclosed in a press release that it incurred $53 million of losses in the third quarter tied to a check fraud scheme that occurred in the prior quarter. Regions didn’t discover the scheme until the third quarter; executives said during a conference call to discuss quarterly earnings that

Macatawa Bank Corp. in Holland, Mich., will have a new CEO next month. The $2.6 billion-asset company said in a press release that Jon Swets will also become president on Nov. 1, succeeding the retiring Ronald Haan. Swets, who joined Macatawa in 2002, has been the company’s chief financial officer. The company said Bryan Barker, senior accounting and reporting manager, will become CFO. Haan, who has been president and CEO

Metropolitan Bank Holding in New York will pay $30 million in penalties to address claims it had deficient third-party risk management practices and violated customer identification rules of the Bank Secrecy Act. The Federal Reserve and New York Department of Financial Services each hit the $6.3 billion-asset bank with $15 million penalties. The regulators had alleged that Metropolitan, in 2020, opened prepaid card accounts for “illicit actors” who then used