Comun, a challenger bank that will focus on the Latino community, has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. The neobank said in a press release that the funding round was led by Costanoa Ventures, with participation from South Park Commons and FJ Labs. Comun said it plans to use the funds to build a financial hub with expanded solutions and resources for Latino immigrants. “We built Comun to make it

Hiring challenges spurred Salisbury Bancorp in Lakeville, Conn., to start looking for a buyer last fall. The $1.5 billion-asset company agreed to sell itself to NBT Bancorp in Norwich, N.Y., in December for $204 million. Salisbury’s board also factored in limited growth opportunities, economic uncertainty and the state of consolidation when it decided to gauge the market for selling, according to a regulatory filing tied to the sale to NBT.

Lael Brainard will resign from the Federal Reserve after being appointed the new director of President Biden’s National Economic Council. Brainard, who joined the Fed in 2014 and has served as vice chair since May 2022, made the announcement in a late-day press release on Tuesday. "Lael has brought formidable talent and superb results to everything she has done at the Federal Reserve," Chair Jerome Powell said in the release.

Citizens Alliance Bank in Clara City, Minn., has agreed to buy Granite Mountain Bank in Butte, Mont. The $1.2 billion-based unit of Forstrom Bancorp. filed its application with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Monday to buy the $135 million-asset Granite Mountain. The deal is expected to close later this year. Neil Bolton, Granite Mountain’s president, is expected to lead GMB’s branches when the deal closes. Granite Mountain was named

Trico Bancshares in Chico, Calif., is dealing with a cybersecurity incident. The $9.9 billion-asset company disclosed in a regulatory filing that it recently shut down its networked systems after detecting unusual activity. Several of Trico’s internal bank systems are offline, including email, telephones and its customer service/call center. The company said it is working to restore the services as quickly as possible. Trico said it is trying to determine the

United Community Banks in Greenville, S.C., has agreed to buy First Miami Bancorp in South Miami, Fla.   The $24 billion-asset United said in a press release that it will pay about $115.9 million in stock for the $1 billion-asset First Miami. The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, priced First Miami at 162% of its tangible book value.   First Miami shareholders will also receive

Northpointe Bank in Grand Rapids, Mich., is exiting the correspondent lending business. The $4.4 billion-asset bank plans to focus more on retail lending, mortgage warehouse financing and specialty loan servicing, according to HousingWire. Fundings will stop on April 28. “Due to the significant contraction of the overall mortgage industry, we have made the difficult decision to exit the correspondent lending business,” Chuck Williams, the bank’s president and CEO, said in

TD Bank Group in Toronto and First Horizon in Memphis, Tenn., have extended the deadline date for their planned merger. The companies said in a press release that the date had been moved from Feb. 27 to May 27 as they finalize a community benefits plans and wait for regulatory approval. TD had already acknowledged that it hopes to close the deal in late April. “TD and First Horizon are