M&I Bank filed the suit against J. Greg Allen, charging he defaulted on two loans he took out to buy 73 acres of land on the northeast corner of Emerson Avenue and County Line Road on Indianapolis' south side.

Shares in regional banks are rallying after Canada's BMO Financial Group agreed to acquire Marshall & Ilsley Corp. in an all-stock deal.

M&I has about 30 branches in the Indianapolis area and controls about 6 percent of the market's bank deposits, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The bank is ranked sixth among area banks in terms of employment, with about 400 workers.

Tim Massey, who has been head of commercial banking, replaces Reagan Rick, who was promoted to a regional management position.

A 10-year, $20 million deal for a civilian division of the U.S. Marine Corps to occupy four floors of the 28-story M&I Plaza building downtown will push the city's sixth-largest office tower from a woeful 30-percent occupancy rate to about 50 percent.

Last week’s front-page story “Shuffling the deck” pointed out the significant gains midsize banks have made in the Indianapolis market over the last year. The one glaring exception was Columbus, Ohio-based Huntington National Bank, which had lost $56.3 million in local deposits as of June 30, according to the FDIC. A closer look explains why.

Banks are fighting an ongoing battle with would-be identity thieves. Because banks are where the money is, the fight is likely to go on a long time, with both thieves and banks growing in sophistication.

The insider-trading settlements announced by the Securities and Exchange Commission this week were an outgrowth of a broader inquiry into trading in First Indiana Corp. by dozens of people before its sale two years ago, according to a former director of the bank.

The Securities and Exchange Commission said today that it has settled insider-trading charges against three local residents who bought shares in First Indiana Corp. immediately before the July 9, 2007, announcement that it was being acquired by a Milwaukee bank for a 42-percent premium.

Bank transaction counts—the number of people going into banks to make a deposit, cash a check or conduct some other form of business—have declined in recent years with the increased popularity of direct deposit, online banking and easy ATM accessibility. So why add branches?

A Maryland company has taken ownership of downtown's 28-story M&I Plaza just three months before a major tenant departure leaves the skyscraper 70-percent vacant. The new owner is CapitalSource Inc., a commercial finance and investment firm based in Chevy Chase, Md. It had been a lender to the former owner, which defaulted.

Indiana's largest locally based bank, First Indiana Corp., decided to end 92 years of independence in 2007, agreeing in July to sell itself to Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp. for $529 million in cash, or $32 a share.

First Indiana Corp.'s announcement that it would be sold to Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp. for $529 million in cash came just 17 days after sale discussions began. Banking observers have speculated for weeks that First Indiana acted fast to cut a deal before it would have to report second-quarter results.

If First Indiana Corp. was looking to pull off a sale quickly, Milwaukee-based Marshall & Ilsley Corp. was a natural place to turn. First Indiana CEO Robert B. Warrington had been doing deals with the bank since he took the helm from Marni McKinney in 2006. Warrington also is a friend and golfing buddy of M&I CEO Mark Furlong.