SmartyPig is switching banks. The Des Moines-based online banking program, in which customers make deposits in anticipation of future purchases, had been working with West Des Moines-based West Bank, but will transfer its accounts to BBVA of Birmingham, Ala., the two companies announced today. SmartyPig customers will receive an e-mail today allowing them to choose whether to continue their SmartyPig accounts with BBVA Compass as their new bank. Customers who continue their SmartyPig accounts will authorize the transfer of their funds on deposit at West Bank to their new BBVA Compass savings account effective Aug. 1. West Bank said earlier this year that it expected SmartyPig to find a larger bank to handle its deposits. BBVA Compass is the U.S. arm of the BBVA Group, a global financial services group with assets of more than $765 billion and operations in more than 30 countries, according to a news release announcing the alliance.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. said it told Casey’s General Stores Inc. it will nominate nine directors as part of its efforts to buy the Ankeny-based convenience store chain, Bloomberg reported. Board members nominated by Couche-Tard would exercise “independent judgment” in considering its offer for Casey’s, the Laval, Quebec-based convenience-store operator said today in a statement. Couche-Tard said on June 2 that it was prepared for a proxy fight if Casey’s rebuffed its $1.9 billion tender offer. Casey’s, which operates 1,500 U.S. stores, said last week that it was considering the $36-a-share bid and advised investors to take no action in the interim.

The Weitz Co. board has elected Len Martling as CEO and Glenn De Stigter as chairman in the wake of the resignation of chairman and CEO Craig Damos, the company announced. Damos resigned because of “philosophical differences with the board,” the company said in a news release. Damos had been with Weitz since 2000, serving as CEO since 2006. Martling went to work for Weitz in 1981 and has more than 35 years of experience in the commercial construction industry. De Stigter is a former Weitz CEO and board chairman.

The value of private-equity acquisitions has climbed 75 percent in the first five months of 2010 compared with the corresponding period last year, The Washington Post reported, based on data from Private Equity Council, an industry’s trade group. Firms invested $80 billion of equity and new debt in acquisitions, compared with $45.7 billion at this time last year. The industry is also doing 12 times as many initial public offerings (IPOs) for its portfolio companies as it did last year. The stock valuations in those companies are higher as well. So far this year, private-equity-backed companies raised nearly $9.3 billion through IPOs, compared with $309 million last year. Click here to read the entire story.

Great Western Bank, with headquarters in Sioux Falls, S.D., and branches in Greater Des Moines, has purchased $2.2 billion in deposits and acquired all of the assets of TierOne Bank of Lincoln, Neb., which was closed last Friday by the Office of Thrift Supervision. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. agreed to share in losses of $1.9 billion as a condition of the sale, TheStreet reported. TierOne’s 69 branches reopened under the Great Western name.