* Southern National Bancorp of Virginia is merging with Eastern Virginia Bankshares in a stock transaction worth approximately $178.3 million.
* PCSB Bank's board of trustees approved a plan to convert the bank to a New York-chartered stock savings bank — a public company — from a New York-chartered mutual savings bank.
* Goldman Sachs intends to promote Harvey Schwartz, CFO, and David Solomon, co-head of the investment banking division, to succeed President and COO Gary Cohn, sources told The Wall Street Journal.
* RenaissanceRe Holdings promoted Sean Brosnan to senior vice president and chief investment officer, and Aditya Dutt to treasurer, effective March 1, 2017.
* The FDIC approved a $2.18 billion operating budget for 2017, down 2.4% from 2016 and 46% lower than the peak in 2010 at the height of the financial crisis.
* The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a final rule requiring Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to submit plans for improving the distribution and availability of mortgage financing in a safe and sound manner for residential properties in underserved markets.
* Just as the U.S. life insurance industry's second-quarter statutory operating results were not as bad as they appeared at first glance, its third-quarter financials are not necessarily as historically strong as they might otherwise seem.
* And the Federal Open Market Committee's two-day meeting concludes today.
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